{"id":1955,"date":"2007-09-21T07:58:18","date_gmt":"2007-09-21T14:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1955"},"modified":"2007-09-21T07:55:37","modified_gmt":"2007-09-21T14:55:37","slug":"fed-trades-a-sharp-pain-quick-recovery-for-extended-convalescence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1955\/fed-trades-a-sharp-pain-quick-recovery-for-extended-convalescence\/","title":{"rendered":"Fed trades a sharp pain, quick recovery for extended convalescence"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is my column this week from the Arizona Republic<\/i> (permanent link<\/a>):<\/p>\n

 
Fed trades a sharp pain, quick recovery for extended convalescence<\/b><\/p>\n

As I write this the Federal Reserve Bank just cut its federal funds rate and also its discount rate, both by half-a-percent. The Fed doesn’t control mortgage interest rates, but, for good or ill, it does have a powerful influence on every aspect of the American economy. These rate cuts send a very strong signal that the central bank intends to stave off any impending liquidity crisis. <\/p>\n

So what just happened? We are almost certainly about to enter a time of financial distress — if not a recession then something very close to it. The nation’s central bankers have opted for a longer period of lower-level pain over a brief but very intense agony. It’s as if your broken leg were healing badly, and, rather than re-breaking the bone, your doctor elected to correct the defect with braces, weights and painful exercises.<\/p>\n

Which would you choose if you had a choice — a quick, intense pain or a long, drawn-out recovery? It doesn’t matter. You don’t have a choice.<\/p>\n

Starting with the dot.com collapse and accelerating with 9\/11, the Fed has pumped the American economy full of money. To the extent that that money was wisely invested in increased productivity, it was well used. To the extent it was wasted, it will have to be redeemed — like a bad check hanging over your credit rating.<\/p>\n

This is the financial distress we have to look forward to. Given a choice, you might swallow hard and live through that short spasm of agony. Instead, the Fed’s action this week may turn a short-term crisis into a long-term syndrome. Rather than re-breaking the bone, living through the healing and getting back to work, we could be spending the next few years on financial crutches.<\/p>\n

On the plus side of the ledger, mortgage rates should go down in the immediate future. It remains to be seen if this will bring buyers out, but this may turn out to be an opportune time to refinance mortgages or home-equity lines Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is my column this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link):  Fed trades a sharp pain, quick recovery for extended convalescence As I write this the Federal Reserve Bank just cut its federal funds rate and also its discount rate, both by half-a-percent. The Fed doesn’t control mortgage interest rates, but, for good or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-lending","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-real-estate","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8184,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8184\/the-fed-translated-6\/","url_meta":{"origin":1955,"position":0},"title":"The Fed Translated….","author":"Tom Vanderwell","date":"April 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Yep, it's that time again.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Fed met yesterday and today and came out with their announcement this afternoon at 2:15 pm.\u00a0\u00a0 I promise that this one won't be as long as the last Fed Translated was.As usual, my comments are in bold and italics.....April 29, 2009For Immediate Release:Information received\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6769,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6769\/the-fed-translated-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":1955,"position":1},"title":"The Fed Translated…..","author":"Tom Vanderwell","date":"January 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Tom here\u2026.\u00a0 Sorry for the delay, but better late than never\u2026.. (my comments are in bold) The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to keep its target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1\/4 percent. Nothing new there and no surprises.\u00a0 Can\u2019t go lower than zero and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":982,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/982\/peeking-into-bernankes-crystal-ball\/","url_meta":{"origin":1955,"position":2},"title":"Peeking into Bernanke’s Crystal Ball","author":"Brian Brady","date":"February 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Do you want to look into the crystal ball through the eyes of Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke? Will that help you predict mortgage rates and housing prices for 2007? I try to outguess the Fed all the time and I've decided that we'll see a significant decline in short-term\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7526,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7526\/the-fed-translated-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":1955,"position":3},"title":"The Fed Translated…..","author":"Tom Vanderwell","date":"March 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, it's time to do a little Fed translating again.\u00a0\u00a0 This one was a big one, so settle in and let's translate it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As usual, my comments are in bold and italics.Release Date: March 18, 2009 For immediate release Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in January\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6152,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6152\/the-fed-translated-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":1955,"position":4},"title":"The Fed Translated…..","author":"Tom Vanderwell","date":"December 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Release Date: December 16, 2008 The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to establish a target range for the federal funds rate of 0 to 1\/4 percent. What\u2019s up with the \u201crange\u201d of rates?\u00a0\u00a0 Well, they\u2019d look pretty foolish if they said they wanted the rate to be at .25%\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9504,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/9504\/the-fed-translated-and-why-it-isnt-good-for-interest-rates\/","url_meta":{"origin":1955,"position":5},"title":"The Fed Translated – and why it isn’t good for interest rates…..","author":"Tom Vanderwell","date":"August 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My apologies for taking almost 24 hours after the Fed to get this up.\u00a0\u00a0 As I\u2019ve done in the past, I want to go through what the Fed said yesterday and give some insights into what I think it means for the housing and mortgage markets.\u00a0\u00a0 You can find the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dirty Laundry"","block_context":{"text":"Dirty Laundry","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dirty-laundry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}