No matter how many monetary officials try to sugarcoat it with damage control, the fact remains that the Ben Bernanke Fed wants to end its quantitative-easing bond-buying operations over the next year. That was Bernanke’s statement at his last press conference, and I’ve seen nothing to contradict it.
As everyone knows, stocks and bonds collapsed right after Bernanke let the cat out of the hat. Fortunately, markets have stabilized since then. But my hunch is that unless the economy really falls back into a quasi-recession, the Fed is going to go ahead and end its bond purchases.
The central bank will more than likely begin to taper in September. And it will do so based on roughly 175,000 new jobs each month, which is consistent with a 2 to 2.5 percent economy.
But as the Fed implements this policy, there’s going to be a lot more volatility in the financial markets, with significant downside risks for stock prices and upside potential for longer-term interest rates.
Read my full column here.