Federal Open Market Committee

A key House panel approved the Paul-Grayson Amendment by an overwhelming 43-26 Thursday afternoon, which will give watchdogs new authority to audit the Federal Reserve.

Here is a summary of the Paul-Grayson Amendment:

Dear Financial Services Committee Colleague:

It is encouraging to see the issue of Federal Reserve transparency receiving so much attention during this current markup. Today we plan to offer an amendment to the Financial Stability Improvement Act that expands on the many extant proposals to enhance Federal Reserve transparency. Our amendment is based on HR 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, which has broad bipartisan and grassroots support. The bill is cosponsored by 309 Members of Congress, including all Financial Services Committee ...

Movement in stocks today bucked the recent trend of moving higher with dollar weakness as reports suggested the Fed could stay put on interest rates until 2012, following statements from James Bullard, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Following reports of the 2012 time-frame, Treasury prices declined and commodities moved to the upside. The thinking ...

ST. LOUIS, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- In a speech Wednesday to area business leaders at the 2009 Commerce Bank Economic Breakfast, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard described the forces driving this nascent economic recovery and posed the question: How sustainable is this growth going forward? The first phase of the recovery has been driven by several factors, he said, including global growth: "Stronger-than-expected global growth, especially in Asia, has been a main force." Bullard's presentation, "The First Phase of the U.S. Recovery," can be viewed at: http://research.stlouisfed.org/econ/bullard/BullardCommerceFinal.pdf. Other forces are driving the fledgling recovery in the U.S.: Personal consumption and the housing sector have stabilized. The stress in financial markets is abating. Bond spreads have narrowed and credit default swap prices have declined. However, "some stress still remains in these markets," he said. Labor markets are still a trouble spot, but there are signs of improvement. "While ...

Chairman Ben S. Bernanke
At the Economic Club of New York, New York, New York
November 16, 2009
On the Outlook for the Economy and Policy

When I last spoke at the Economic Club of New York a little more than a year ago, the financial crisis had just taken a much more virulent turn. In my remarks at that time, I described the extraordinary actions that policymakers around the globe were taking to address the crisis, and I expressed optimism that we had the tools necessary to stabilize the system.

Today, financial conditions are considerably better than they were then, but significant economic challenges remain. The flow of credit remains constrained, economic activity weak, and unemployment much too high. Future setbacks are possible. Nevertheless, I think it is fair to say that policymakers' forceful actions last fall, and others that followed, were instrumental in bringing our financial ...

Here is a list of the top news items from this week on Wall Street:

1. The unemployment rate rose over 10% this week, marking the first time since 1983. Data from the labor department showed that employers cut another 190,000 jobs last month, pushing the rate of unemployment up from Septembers 9.8%. Although economists had been expecting the unemployment rate to drop to just 9.9%, shares rose sharply on Thursday, closing above the heavily-watched 10,000 level.

2. The Fed held its key interest rates at the 0-0.25% range this week. As this had been expected by traders, the real speculation was related to the language used in the FOMC statement: to keep rates "exceptionally low" for an "extended period".

3 ...