World Perspectives

Fed’s Next Move

The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will be meeting again in June, and the markets are expecting a federal fund rate hike to 2 percent. The only real surprise would be if the increase was more than 25 basis points. When the rate was raised in March to the current 1.75 percent, the Fed released its so-called dot-plot. This is a chart with dots that each represent a Fed member’s view on where the federal fund rate should be at the end of the year as well as the following one. The dot-plot showed a median of 2.9 percent by the end of 2019, which could be interpreted as three rate increases this year (March and then presumably two more in June and December), and two next year with 3.4 percent reached in 2020...

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From WPI Consulting

Weighing in on strategic realignment

WPI’s team was retained by the governing board of a U.S. industry organization to review a decision, reached by vote, to invest significant assets into the development and management of an export trading company. WPI’s team conducted a formal review of this decision and concluded that the current level of market saturation would limit the benefits of the investment. Based on WPI’s analysis and recommended actions, the board subsequently reversed its decision and undertook a strategic planning effort to identify more impactful investments. On behalf of numerous clients, WPI has not only assisted in identifying strategic paths but also advised their implementation.

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