Interest rates to rise? (Greenspan)

[Missouri Mule]

Greenspan Hints at End to Low Rates
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

Published: November 7, 2003


WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 - Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, offered a first hint on Thursday that the era of rock-bottom interest rates may be slowly drawing to a close.

Acknowledging for the first time that the economy has grown at a blistering pace in recent months, Mr. Greenspan gave an optimistic assessment of the prospects for strong growth and a gradual reduction in unemployment.

The Fed chairman also departed slightly from the central bank's recent open-ended commitment to retain a policy of cheap money "for a considerable period."...

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/07/business/07econ.html?th

[allan]

They obviously are going to have to raise them eventually -- but I trust Greenspan and I am pretty confident that he will wait until the growth is relatively sustained. The trick is the economy has to be growing fast enough to offset the drop in refinancing and possibly new home sales that will follow a rate increase.

[Missouri Mule]

Doesn't appear to have affected the market much. The DOW is up 16 as I write this.

He is obviously signaling that something is afoot.

[Voice Of Reason]

The economy is starting to boom..............Good news for the President and bad news for the democrats.............

[Blueangel]

This may be of interest to you...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3246493.stm

Britain had it's first interest rate rise in yonks yesterday.
It's supposedly, to counteract the excessive public borrowing but this article shows that it may be the start of a worldwide trend.

[Missouri Mule]

Well, the Dow was down 47 today so I guess they didn't much like Greenspan's message. They are hinting at going over 10,000 but it may take a while.