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DS News Webcast: Monday 12/7/2015

In what many viewed as the final piece of the puzzle before a Fed liftoff later this month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported solid job gains of 211 thousand for November in the Employment Summary for November 2015 released Friday. November’s job gains combined with upward revisions for both September and October to lift the average monthly job gains for the last three months up to 218 thousand.

Many analysts and economists predicted prior to Friday the only thing that will prevent a liftoff by the Fed at the December 17 Federal Open Market Committee meeting was a poor November jobs report. NAFCU Chief Economist Curt Long stated, quote, This should put to bed any doubts about whether the Fed will announce a rate increase later this month. Barring something completely out of left field between now and then, liftoff will commence with a quarter-point rate increase to the target federal funds rate. End quote

Speaking in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Antonio Weiss, Counselor to the Treasury Secretary, stated that the housing finance system remains the great unfinished business of financial reform. He noted that the Administration stands behind a set of core principles for housing finance reform which include limiting taxpayer exposure to risk, leveling the playing field for large and small financial institutions, and providing broad access to long-term, fixed rate lending in all communities through all economic cycles.