Well, if you're content with having a bunch of highly-paid academics controlling your finances, you're in luck. The Federal Reserve has been hard at work for over 100 years to guarantee that they get a cut of everybody's money, mostly because they create it themselves, out of thin air, with no backing with tangible assets, like gold, or silver, or anything like that.
As it says on their debt instruments,
full faith and credit.
Therein lies the problem. Most people, if they understood how the Federal Reserve operates - mostly in secret, and outside the boundaries of government (it is a private banking system, after all. Shhh!) - would pine for foregone days when gold and silver were the coin of the realm, so to speak, when people and businesses weren't amortized and taxed to the bare bones of their existence.
Full faith is something the Fed takes for granted, assuming that 99% of the public has no idea how money works. Credit is their life blood. Every dollar created by the Fed is a debt, which is why the so called "national debt" can never be repaid. If it was, there would be no money. Everybody would be broke.
Is that what is occupying the minds of the great investors and traders of Wall Street and their bankers, brokers, cronies and insiders? Probably not. They're more interested in getting and keeping as much of the Federal Reserve money they can, investing it in more stocks, bonds, debentures, options, futures and maybe along the way, some real assets like real estate, gold, silver, art, vehicles, machinery.
Almost nobody really cares about how the Fed or other central banks operate. It's a fact. Most people are caught up in the matrix of jobs, bills, rents, taxes, and debt. They don't have time to study the intricate workings of central banks, which, of course, is how the central bankers wish. The less scrutiny on them, the more they and their member banks (all the big ones) make, unaudited and without interference.
What the traders on the exchanges today were contemplating was whether or not the Fed will actually raise the federal funds rate (the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans) to 2.00-2.25% tomorrow at 2:00 pm EDT when the FOMC policy rate decision is announced.
The simple answer is that they almost certainly will. The market has priced this in. At the least, the 10-year treasury note has gotten the memo. It's holding pretty steady at 3.10% yield, anticipating the Fed's very well-telegraphed interest rate ploy.
To many of the top traders and investors, the Fed's bold actions, in the face of a somewhat gradual economic improvement, are already too much and too soon. Some analysts are suggesting that with the 10-year note over three percent, big money will forego the risks inherent in the stock market and shift more money into bonds. The 10-year is a benchmark. Better returns can be made in corporate debt offerings, junk bonds, shorter term offerings, or munis, all of which carry more risk, but not significantly so.
Thus, the market will tell everybody, including the wizened old men and women at the Fed, what the federal funds rate should be by voting with their feet. If stocks continue to rise, it gives the Fed a free pass to increase rates another 25 basis points in December. If the market declines, the Fed will be on its own.
The Fed has raised rates at a very steady pace since December 2016, adding 0.25% every quarter, in March, June, September, and December. They may be nearing a point at which they need to take a break.
The questions are whether or not they will see it, understand it, and how they will act upon it.
Dow Jones Industrial Average September Scorecard:
| Date |
Close |
Gain/Loss |
Cum. G/L |
| 9/4/18 |
25,952.48 |
-12.34 |
-12.34 |
| 9/5/18 |
25,974.99 |
+22.51 |
+10.17 |
| 9/6/18 |
25,995.87 |
+20.88 |
+31.05 |
| 9/7/18 |
25,916.54 |
-79.33 |
-48.28 |
| 9/10/18 |
25,857.07 |
-59.47 |
-107.75 |
| 9/11/18 |
25,971.06 |
+113.99 |
+6.24 |
| 9/12/18 |
25,998.92 |
+27.86 |
+34.10 |
| 9/13/18 |
26,145.99 |
+147.07 |
+181.17 |
| 9/14/18 |
26,154.67 |
+8.68 |
+189.85 |
| 9/17/18 |
26,062.12 |
-92.55 |
+97.30 |
| 9/18/18 |
26,246.96 |
+184.84 |
+282.14 |
| 9/19/18 |
26,405.76 |
+158.80 |
+440.94 |
| 9/20/18 |
26,656.98 |
+251.22 |
+692.16 |
| 9/21/18 |
26,743.50 |
+86.52 |
+778.68 |
| 9/24/18 |
26,562.05 |
-181.45 |
+597.23 |
| 9/25/18 |
26,492.21 |
-69.84 |
+527.39 |
At the Close, Tuesday, September 25, 2018:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 26,492.21, -69.84 (-0.26%)
NASDAQ: 8,007.47, +14.22 (+0.18%)
S&P 500: 2,915.56, -3.81 (-0.13%)
NYSE Composite: 13,161.64, -0.42 (0.00%)
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