Months. we have learned to cost more to buy a house, pay down the credit card balance. who benefits? savers. saver who is for nearly seven years getting zero interest on the savings deposit finally get a little bit more on their deposits and anybody with a cd to see that go up about a quarter of 1%, as well. everything is pegged on one level to the federal funds rate. the fed indicating in the statement right now that further rate hikes likely made slowly because the economy is strengthening but not as fast as expected and inflation which is the key is not near the target. they have a 2% interest rate target on inflation and way below that because oil prices have been falling dramatically and very interesting to hear the nuances from the fed chief as to what her definition of gradual really is. sue, an unanswerable
Some of the fed speak in language we can all digest. i know this is your beat. tell me, we re awaiting this statement. what will you be listening for? what we know is we have seen the statement. we know there s no change in the amount of bonds the fed is going to keep buying, that stimulus into the economy. no change in its interest rate target. really i would say overall no change from the fed right now. and that is what so many people wanted to know. will the fed chief, will ben bernanke, continue to stimulate the economy. they re putting $85 billion every single month right into the economy by making these bond purchases. what we can tell you, the statement from the fed, that s going to stay the same. they are not announcing how, when, why, if and how much they re going to pull back on that. at least just not right now. i was listening in. we re all listening sort of for the two t words. tapering and tightening. hang tight, christine. let me bring in cnn s global economics ana
Becoming business won ki, the federal reserve controls your money and the cost of money through interest rates and the federal reserve is ready to answer some questions. i can t believe this. when i started covering the fed, you didn t even know if they changed their interest rate target. it was all secret. fed chairman ben bernanke is going to be the first to have a press conference. the fed has come under tough criticism since the financial crisis for its secret policy decisions and sterile answers and was basically dragged into this publicity stunt kicking and screaming by congressional action and lawsuits from the media. still, do not expect bernanke to say too much because everybody still knows that when the fed chairman speaks, it has a great deal of impact on the markets. when the markets are open. i would have scheduled it for when the markets aren t open so you don t have an instant reaction like that. also, i think he s going to be grilled about gas prices and commodity
Event. from the washington post joining us now, neil, we are used to the fed speak, quote/unquote, do we expect to hear something that the average american can actually understand out of this and how important will it be to relay the message on interest rates we re expecting just over an hour from now? an important change. they ve had a long, slow progress in this direction ever being more open. 15 years ago in 1994 they didn t even tell you what happened after a meeting. had you to figure it out from what went on in financial markets. whether they raced or lowers interests rates. something someone up there, this is what we did, why question it, here s ration natural, questions from the press, a big step and will offer greater clarity on what they re doing and why. the markets tend to move with chairman bernanke s decisions and statements. any chairman for that matter. should we expect more of the same today especially in this type of venue? yeah. no big policy moves are expect