March, 2012
...George said (click here) the seriousness of the recession was due to its combination of causes, including the housing bubble and over-extended debt by everyone from consumers to banks and businesses. While de-leveraging continues, she noted businesses are making important moves.
“Business investment continues to be strong,” she noted. “Business are not hiring, but they are up-grading equipment and technology to position themselves for growth. That’s especially true of small business.”
George noted a rally in early 2011 was stymied by oil price increases, the Japanese earthquake and European economics. Foreseeable concerns for 2012 include continued U.S. debt and Europe’s economy. She predicted that balancing the nation’s fiscal policy would also be difficult issue, with long-term inflation a concern. The jump in farmland prices spurred by easily leveraged investment is one example....
Today she stated:
"I think it is time to begin to adjust those purchases. The labor market has shown now, for the last six months, pretty steady gains of close to 200,000 per month. That is a good indicator that there has been sustained improvement here and that I think it would be appropriate, given the size of our balance sheet, given the level of accommodation, that we begin to make adjustments that reflect that improvement as we go forward."
