mortgage-backed securities Archives

Taper Tiger

By Econ70 | 09/10/2013

With a drop in the labor force participation rate to 63.2%, its lowest level since 8/78, the creation of only 169,000 net new jobs in August and revisions subtracting 74,000 new jobs in June and July, it’s now a toss-up whether the Fed begins tapering in September. If they do, expect the Fed to reduce…

Laboring On

By Econ70 | 12/10/2012

Last Friday’s mediocre employment report gives the Fed (meeting this week) ample reason to continue buying Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities at the rate of about $80 billion/month for the foreseeable future. As for the employment report, average hourly earnings rose only 1.7% over the past 12 months, while the CPI increased 2.2%! The workweek remained…