Of course they’re going to talk about tapering
Courtesy of Joshua M Brown
Two weeks ago I talked about how and why the taper talk was coming any day now. Yesterday we got the first blast of it. This is the from the minutes of the April Fed meeting, released this week (via CNBC):
Federal Reserve officials at their April meeting said a strong pickup in economic activity would warrant discussions about tightening monetary policy, according to minutes from the session released Wednesday.
“A number of participants suggested that if the economy continued to make rapid progress toward the Committee’s goals, it might be appropriate at some point in upcoming meetings to begin discussing a plan for adjusting the pace of asset purchases,” the meeting summary said.
So, they’re ready to start thinking about thinking about tapering. It’s good that they’re acknowledging the pressures in the real economy and their role in it. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, continuing to stimulate the housing market at this point is psychotic.
***
Via Stimulating the housing market is psychotic:
The builders won’t build at a loss, so what little supply exists is being snapped up like white truffles in September. Have a look at this chart of housing inventory via Ben:
Yes, you are reading that correctly. We have two months’ worth of single family homes available for purchase. And ceaseless demand as tens of millions of Gen Y households are forming.