Federal Reserve Blog

The May jobs report is out tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. While temporary census workers will bloat the results, the expectations of 500,000 new jobs seems to me to be unrealistically high. Even decent growth could undershoot that by a wide margin. The significant number won’t be in the headline however, but the true measure

Conventional wisdom says that consumers have been aggressive about paying down their credit card debts, and as evidence, the Federal Reserve’s Consumer Credit release known as the G19 release is often cited. Specifically, the category known as revolving debt which is comprised largely of credit cards, declined by $92 billion in calendar year 2009. But

You have strong credit and are determined to get out of debt sooner, but your credit card issuer surprised you with a rate increase several months ago that threatens to slow your progress. In that case, you’re a great candidate for a balance transfer. The first step is to do some comparison shopping on the

I tweeted about this over the weekend, but the Saturday Wall Street Journal contained an interview with Thomas Hoenig, the President of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. Perhaps you know him as the one voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee that has dissented in each of this year’s three FOMC meetings.
Hoenig feels

Making only the minimum payment on a credit card is a treadmill to nowhere. Nothing illustrates this better than Bankrate.com’s calculator “The True Cost of Paying the Minimum.”
We’ve produced a video demonstrating this calculator and also providing a solution to accelerate debt repayment on even the tightest budget. The reason minimum payments take a

Was the big issue last week a momentary trading glitch or the prospect of renewed financial tensions due to government default? Congress has it wrong.

The jobs report showed an increase in the unemployment rate to 9.9 percent, but the real headline is that we saw respectable job growth in April, 290,000 new jobs, on top of an upwardly revised 230,000 new jobs in March. While we really need to see 400,000 or 500,000 new jobs on a consistent basis to begin making a dent in the 15.3 million unemployed, there is no denying that things are headed in the right direction.

Yes, the employment report is still the top gauge of where we stand economically and it will retain its critical importance in that regard.

However, it will carry significance for an additional reason. The monthly employment report could be a catalyst for the next move in long-term interest rates.

The economy grew solidly, but not spectacularly, in the first three months of 2010. Consumers were the driving force as they let loose after 18 months of belt tightening.

The Federal Open Market Committee’s two-day meeting concluded this afternoon, with no change in rates and virtually no change in their statement. The Fed did mention the job market “is beginning to improve,” that “growth in household spending has picked up recently,” and that housing starts “have edged up but remain at a depressed level.”