Columns

The most recent statement from the policy-setting Federal Open Markets Committee was a study in cognitive dissonance.

Despite there being a bigger surplus in 2012 to 2013, the price of oil back then did not plunge as much or as fast as it has since the summer. What gives?

One has to wonder what’s going to happen when U.S. markets grow up and realize there is no Santa Claus. 

The Fed surprised most everyone by essentially doubling-down on its dovish policy of keeping interest rates at near-zero for the foreseeable future.

Sharply lower oil prices are likely a temporary event and not expected to impact the Fed’s long-term thinking.

Everyone knows there's 'slack' in the labor market, the question is how it will impact the central bank's decision on timing and trajectory of interest-rate hikes.

The Fed has to figure out how to rid itself of a four-word phrase -- "for a considerable period" -- that lies at the center of a much broader debate raging within the central bank.

A second Polar Vortex threatens to erase the stimulus from plunging gas prices, putting a deep freeze on holiday spending.

Bank insiders talk now about the unproductive vegetative universe of Dodd Frank creating a cornfield of regulators on Wall Street.

The most interesting thing about QE is that the experimental policy is defined not by what did happen as a result of all the money-printing and bond-purchasing, but rather by what didn’t happen.

The same debate Japan has been having since the ‘90s over undead businesses still in operation is now breaking out in the U.S. and in Europe.

This is the week the Federal Reserve is saying, that's that. You're on your own, the register is closed.

Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher told FOX Business it’s “way too premature” to consider another round of bond purchases despite the recent market downturn.

The former Treasury Secretary took issue with the Federal Reserve chairwoman's recent comments on the valuation of stocks in the social media and biotechnology sectors.

Philly Fed President Charles Plosser's lone dissent gives voice to a much larger debate taking place over when and how the Fed should raise interest rates. Fed Continues $10B Taper | READ: FOMC June Meeting Statement

As the Fed walks a balancing act between healthy and harmful inflation, consumers are starting to feel the pinch.

The quest for specifics as to when the Fed might start raising interest rates has turned into something resembling a high-stakes game of cat and mouse.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen should avoid the tainted legacies of her predecessors -- Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan -- both burned by ignoring signs of emerging financial bubbles.  

Most Americans don't pay much attention to what goes on at the Fed on a daily basis, and that's a good thing. Market pros and the media, on the other hand...

As the Fed unwinds its unprecedented easy-money policies market volatility is a sure bet. My advice to average investors: ignore it.