The announcement that the FOMC decided to maintain the Fed Funds rate unchanged yesterday elicited a collective yawn from the media and markets as this was long a foregone conclusion among Fed watchers. What did raise some eyebrows was the so-called “dot plot,” a chart that is released along with the monetary policy announcement.

The complete archive for The Freeman 34, no1. 1–12 (1984), published by the Foundation for Economic Education.

After months of assuring the world that the Federal Reserve would soon be ending its zero rate interest policy, the FOMC blinked on Thursday. Citing “[r]ecent global economic and financial developments,” the Federal Reserve decided to further postpone the inevitable pain that will come from taking away the financial punch bowl.

The Fed has decided to maintain their excessively low interest policy yet again in their Open Market Committee meeting today.  Anyone who understands Austrian economics will know that the Fed’s manipulation of interests at all causes a misallocation of resources and destabilizes the economy.  The Fed’s interest rate policy is a price control, pure and simple, which removes vital information from economic decision-makers.

Responding to today’s news from the FOMC, Jeff Deist writes: 

Perhaps no economic pronouncement in history has been anticipated, discussed, predicted, dissected, and reported like the Federal Reserve’s momentous decision today not to raise interest rates.

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Perhaps no economic pronouncement in history has been anticipated, discussed, predicted, dissected, and reported like the Federal Reserve’s momentous decision today not to raise interest rates.

The outpouring of relief witnessed today by the financial press is nothing short of cathartic. Fear and anxiety, built up over months, is replaced by relief, even euphoria.

Today would have been Joey Rothbard’s 87th birthday. She was Murray Rothbard’s “indispensable framework. “ She was a scholar in her own right, but she devoted her life to helping Murray. She was a wonderful friend, and I miss her very much.

[This is the last formal talk of Ludwig von Mises [1881–1973], delivered May 2, 1970 at an economic seminar sponsored by The Society of Praxeology in Seattle, Washington. It was attended by 600 students, teachers, and others. This text was transcribed from audiotape by Bettina Bien Greaves and edited, primarily for syntax and punctuation, by Percy L. Greaves, Jr. It has been made available to the Mises Institute by Mrs. Greaves, and has never before appeared in print.]

Ladies and Gentlemen: