Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen is likely to face a tougher audience today as she returns to Capitol Hill for a second day of monetary policy testimony, this time before the House Financial Services Committee.
Yesterday the market focused on Yellen’s comments before the Senate Banking Committee that the Fed would likely raise short-term interest rates ‘at our upcoming meetings’ amid an improving economy, a signal that a move could come as soon as the central bank’s next meeting in March…which sent the March rate hike odds soaring.
Yellen declined to say whether a rate increase next month was likely but cautioned that holding off on rate increases for too long ‘would be unwise,’ and could force the Fed eventually to raise rates rapidly, which could trigger a recession.
While Senators yesterday focused primarily on economic and regulatory issues, House members today are likely to question Yellen about many GOP-backed proposals to rein in the central bank, proposals that she has previously opposed. The measures include allowing Congress to audit the Fed’s interest-rate decisions and requiring it to adopt a mathematical rule to guide interest rate decisions.
This post was published at Zero Hedge on Feb 15, 2017.
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