The Federal Reserve has three objectives for monetary policy; maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates. The first two get most of the attention probably since the third one helps to influence the first two and they are the ones that impact consumers and businesses the most. The Fed seems poised to lower its target rate range on July 31 even though they are close to historically low levels, retail sales continue to be strong and unemployment is around all-time lows but job growth is slowing. However, the economy is showing signs of weakness as seen in recent PMI reports, detailed ... (full story)