I'm not sure how Bill Evans, chief economist at Westpac and one of the very, very few who nailed the date of the first Reserve Bank of Australia rate cut this year, will feel about the headline to an interesting piece here in Australia: Weekend Economist: Get ready for Fed lift-off
That headline, to me, reads like they think Mr Evans is a bit of a 'weekend economist'! Which is unfair.
Anyway ...
The gist of the article:
- He expects the Fed to hike next week, not wait until December
- And that "The market is not prepared for this historic event"
On the September vs. December question:
Markets are more confident that the Fed will wait until December on the basis that the Fed surprised by delaying the decision to taper QE to December when the scene was set for September.
I think Fed authorities might see that decision as, in hindsight, adding unnecessary uncertainty to the market and forcing a major policy change into a time of limited market liquidity.
