Skip to main content

Rate hike by 50 basis points: US central bank wants to fight inflation more vigorously

 


The US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announced after a two-day meeting on Wednesday that interest rates would be raised by 50 basis points, or 0.5 percent. Such a decision was already expected in advance. This is the second of an expected seven interest rate adjustments this year. In March, the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points, or 0.25 percent, the first hike since 2018.


Markets were already braced for Wednesday's rate hike, which was the largest since 2000. It was therefore expected that the immediate reaction to this decision would be non-existent. US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated in April that there would be a 0.5 percent adjustment. Immediately following the central bank's announcement, risky assets such as stocks and even cryptocurrencies have surged.

Bitcoin ( BTC ) has fallen over 40 percent since the US Federal Reserve announced interest rate hikes in November . Following the March decision, BTC was hovering around $41,000. It's currently under $40,000.


With this interest rate hike, the FOMC wants to combat rising inflation, which reached 8.5 percent in March, the highest level in four decades . Many economists have criticized the US Federal Reserve for being too slow in tackling inflation and therefore prone to overreacting. The Fed left interest rates at zero to support the economy in the wake of the corona pandemic. In 2021, she has wrongly labeled the inflation spike as "temporary". With the war in Ukraine and renewed lockdowns in China, global inflationary pressures have now increased even further.


The Fed also announced on Wednesday that it intends to reduce its balance sheet and sell bonds and securities in the process. The balance sheet has doubled to $9 trillion since the pandemic began. At best, this will result in a temporary shock to financial markets. However, this step could also have negative effects in the longer term.


After the committee vote, Powell gave a press conference where he assured Americans that the Federal Reserve was "working swiftly" to bring inflation under control. He said the central bank believes incremental hikes of 50 basis points are appropriate to bring inflation within the current 2 percent target range. He also said the committee would not consider hikes of 75 basis points. Future rate adjustments would be closer to 25 basis points.


US President Joe Biden said the Treasury Department will reduce the national debt this quarter. This will also help fight inflation. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told a Wall Street Journal event on Wednesday that she expects continued economic growth this year and a "soft landing" on inflation without a recession.

My Top Picks
Honeygain - Passive earner that pays in BTC or PayPal
MandalaExchange -The Best no KYC crypto Exchange! 
BetFury - Play And Earn BFG for daily Bitcoin and ETH dividends!
Pipeflare - Faucet that pays in ZCash and Matic, Games pay in DAI
Womplay - Mobile dApp gaming platform that rewards in EOS and Bitcoin
Cointiply - The #1 Crypto Earning Site
Torum - Join the latest Social Network and earn TRM for Free! 
LiteCoinPay - The #1 FaucetPay earner for Litecoin 
LBRY/Odysee - YouTube Alternative that lets you earn Money by viewing videos!
FaucetPay - The #1 Microwallet Platform
FREEBTC - The #1 FaucetPay earner for Satoshi's
FaucetCrypto - An earning/faucet site that pays out instantly
FireFaucet - An earning site that pays better for some than Cointiply
DogeFaucet - Dogecoin Faucet
xFaucet - BTC, ETH, LTC, Doge, Dash, Tron, DGB, BCH, BNB, ZEC, FEY - Claim every 5 minutes
Konstantinova - BTC, ETH, LTC, Doge, Dash, Tron, DGB, BNB, ZEC, USDT, FEY, 25 Claims Daily

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The 5 largest platforms for non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles

  Since the beginning of 2021, non-fungible tokens (NFT) have had no holding back and the sector is setting new records almost every day.  More and more artists, stars and brands are realizing the potential - NFT are well on their way to catapulting the crypto space into the mainstream.  But which collectibles are currently the most popular? What are NFT? NFT are unique tokens that cannot be exchanged one-for-one for an equivalent token.  Any asset that is tokenizable can be an NFT.  This includes, for example, (digital) works of art, trading cards, game items and crypto domains.  Theoretically, however, real estate or securities can also be mapped as NFT. NFTs can be used to transparently map ownership structures on a public blockchain.  This allows them to store value just like real objects, even if additional copies are easy to make.  For example, the original picture of the Mona Lisa is significantly more valuable than a photo, as everyone kno...

CARDALONIA: THE CARDANO METAVERSE OPENS THE GATES!

  Have you ever been to Cardalonia? With these words, the Cardano Metaverse called Cardalonia starts the gates. In this 3D world, developers and users can interact with each other. First of all, users have to create an individual character with which they can move online. After that you can enter one of the worlds built by developers with this character. You can also purchase your own land in the Cardano Metaverse via the marketplaces in Cardalonia . This is secured by Cardano's blockchain technology and therefore offers a relatively secure transfer of ownership. Since these are only digital plots of land, it is not yet entirely clear when the plots of land are purchased whether they can also be sold again in the future. A possible profit cannot be estimated at the moment. In Cardalonia, the cryptocurrency Lonia is used. The maximum amount of tokens in circulation is 100,000,000. The team consists of Alice Sand (Co-Founder), Vasil Air (CTO) and Dustan Water (Fullstack Developer). T...

Cardano: This is the vision that founder Charles Hoskinson has

  The Altcoin Cardano has tended to decline in recent weeks.  The Alonzo upgrade was supposed to bring improvements, but it soon turned out to be a disappointment.  Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson presented his vision for the cyber motto in a live Twitter video. • Cardano in the last few months under pressure • Charles Hoskinson explains his Cardano vision via Twitter • Security and privacy at the center The cryptocurrency  Cardano  has had a difficult few months.  While founder Charles Hoskinson's cyber motto has had a strong run in 2021, it has been steadily downhill in recent months.  Cardano is faced with some difficulties.  The so-called Alonzo upgrade went live in mid-September, for which crypto fans had high hopes, but which soon turned out to be a disappointment.  The upgrade should make it possible to use smart contracts on the cryptocurrency as well.  It soon turned out, however, that although these were entered into Cardano,...