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Weekly Finance Thread - 2026-08-08

A weekly thread to discuss financial matters - from personal all the way up to global.

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A while ago, I predicted that we would see one modest federal rate increase before the end of the year.

Since then, I've seen evidence for and against that prediction. Evidence in favor of a rate increase is that there were three votes in favor of an increase at the last meeting. Evidence against it is the recent weak jobs report, which pushes on the other side of the Fed's dual mandate.

Overall, I'm starting to lean against even that one token rate increase. What are your predictions?

Supposedly the bond market rates are rising, fed target rates be damned. I've seen predictions that the fed won't raise rates because the bond markets will have defacto raised rates for them anyways. So the question is actually, will the fed launch into more QE to take the edge off the bond market?