As the price of natural gas rocketed, it was also a thing of beauty. But it took the average American to pull out of the deep freeze.
Oil prices dropped because of the Federal Reserve’s zero-interest-rate policy, but now are back to all time highs. So, for the first time since 2004, oil prices are higher than ever. But it’s not a good thing. The U.S. economy is in the doldrums. The Federal Reserve’s policies have made it more difficult for the United States to grow.
The Federal Reserve’s zero-interest-rate policy, which has kept interest rates at historically low levels, has also made it more expensive for Americans to borrow money. This is a major factor in the economy’s slow-down, since the U.S. has been borrowing money at historically low levels for quite some time.
The Fed has been at its weakest ever in the past two years. It did have a weak interest rate, but the U.S. economy was still relatively middling. The Fed has been at its weakest ever.
It is always the case that an interest rate policy makes borrowers more expensive to borrow money, so the Fed is trying to keep the rate low.
The Fed is also in the midst of the biggest investment bubble in its history. It’s the sort of thing that gets people out of the way quickly and has no effect on the financial markets. The average Fed economist has been predicting that the Fed will shrink its holdings of stocks, bonds, and other funds to help keep stocks in the balance. That’s a great thing for a lot of people.
A little more than a year ago, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average had a loss of a hundred point or two, people wondered whether the Fed was going to pull the plug on the huge, booming stock market bubble that was building up. This year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up by 300 points. The Dow is now at 14,827. In just a year, the Fed has cut its holdings of stocks to a tenth of what they were in June of 2008.
In the past year, crude oil prices have doubled. In only a few months, they have doubled again. You can’t blame the market for that, but that’s just because the Fed is doing what they always do: Cutting back on the big, booming stock market bubble.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is comprised of two things – 1) stocks and 2) index funds. The more stocks you own, the more money you have. As for the Dow, it is comprised of the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The S&P 500 is comprised of the S&P 500 companies. The Dow is comprised of the combined companies of the S&P 500 and Dow Jones.
The SampP 500’s largest shareholder, Enron, was a company where the top executives were the same ones who were on the board of directors. It’s also owned by companies like Chevron and Exxon, who have used the same kind of shenanigans over the last couple of decades to inflate their stock prices. The Dow’s biggest shareholder is Fidelity, which seems to be a holding company for various financial services companies.