Why do the Fed members continue to over promise and under deliver?

[thenews]

Fed's Williams and Lockhart have both feet on the brakes as they speak on a panel discussion

The Fed's Lockhart and Williams spoke on a panel discussion in Washington, and true to Fed form, they both had their feet on the brakes to slow down this overheating 0.5% 1Q growth economy (remember that is the annualized number. So for the quarter you are talking about nothing).  Two to three hikes are on the way in 2016 and 3-4 more in 2017.  Admittedly, the 2Q is showing improvement so far, but it is still a ways off to the finish line (GDP estimate is for 2.5% on an annualized basis).  I remember this time in Q1 when the growth estimates were for 2.7% growth. It ended at 0.5%.  

Meanwhile, they comment that a higher dollar will make it harder to reach the Fed's inflation target. Seven tightening should lead to a higher dollar/lower inflation. 

They don't care about who is the president.  They may want to remain independent of politics but the last economics class I took did speak to the idea of fiscal policy as a key economic tool.  There are those darn "entitlement" payments to the baby boomers which either have to be funded or cut in the not too distant future. Will that be important?  Meanwhile there is one candidate who looks to turn Washington upside down.

Brexit?  "We don't rule out hiking before the vote" if our crystal ball says everything will be ok.  After all, they "are focused on how global events feed into U.S".  China is not a problem but maybe it is? Maybe that is why we did not grow 2-3% in Q1.

I don't know.  We have been down this road before. We have heard the same tune. We get the dot plots and the central tendencies.  We hear how the economy will be 2-3% and the 2Q annualized rate may be that but the 1Q annualized rate was tiny. 

We have heard how the oil price decline will feed into more consumer spending.  We don't hear how higher oil prices will feed into less consumer spending, but we hope for higher oil prices anyway  Why? Do you think we will get the oil rigs going again?  Not likely.   

Times have changed compared to the past gents. The dynamics are different.  People are trying to save more. They worry about the future and rightfully so.  Many were decimated in 2008.  Lower gas at the pump goes to buying food/paying down debt.

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