DS News - U.S. Bank

12 ON THE WEB WEBSITES TO GET TO KNOW. Created specifically by Yardi to help the tens of thousands of people displaced by Hurricane Harvey, this free online housing registry is helping those in the affected regions find both temporary and permanent housing options. Individuals who have properties available to rent can also list their properties as long as the housing is habitable, and otherwise safe from storm, flooding or other damage. ough they do not provide the furniture themselves, RENTCAFÉ also points users in the right direction to rent or purchase furniture. Covering more than 500 risk topics in over 32 languages, SKILLSOFT is your online source for compliance regulation—from basic training to embedding compliance in your business strategy. If you're looking for other types of training, Skillsoft also offers legal and ethics training to increase efficiency in your HR department or if you simply want to better educate yourself or office as well as courses on various IT topics. e site provides samples of their new and modern course design intended to drive learner engagement and retention on their website. FRESHBOOKS gives you the power to automate tasks like invoicing, organizing expenses, tracking time, and following up with clients all within the cloud, so you can securely access it from your desktop, phone, and tablet. e software is designed for individuals, allowing the user to pick the right products for their needs instead of "one size fits all". FreshBooks was started in 2003 with four employees in a basement. Today they have over 200 employees and cater to over 10 million people in over 120 countries. ey have been featured in magazines such as Forbes, Huffington Post, and Entrepreneur. SKILLSOFT.COM/COMPLIANCE-TRAINING 2 RENTCAFE.COM/HURRICANEHARVEY 1 FRESHBOOKS.COM 3 WHAT SHAPE MIGHT A GDP MONETARY POLICY TAKE? ere has been much speculation regarding the future of the Federal Reserve and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) lately, and these questions are widely bandied about in mortgage and banking circles: Will FOMC Chair Janet Yellen serve another term, and when will the Fed once again raise interest rates to facilitate its goal of reducing its balance sheet? But a new Bloomberg op-ed proposes a different question: What if new and inevitable changes to the FOMC result in a change in monetary policy that favors gross domestic product rather than inflation and unemployment rates? When Federal Reserve Vice Chair Stanley Fischer announced his pending resignation in October, more than eight months prior to when his term was set to end, he left four of the seven seats on the board vacant. And although Randal Quarles, a former banking executive, was confirmed by a Senate Banking Committee vote of 17-6, his position still awaits a full Senate vote, which has not yet been scheduled. ese factors, combined with current Fed Chair Janet Yellen's term expiring in February 2018, leave open the opportunity for big changes in the Fed and its current stance on monetary policy. So how would monetary policy change if its focus is shifted toward GDP? According to the author, the Fed would first have to address remittances to the Treasury Department and the interest it pays to banks on excess reserves. e Fed currently transfers the interest income from the government securities it has purchased through open market operations to the Treasury. Another suggestion would be that the Fed credit the Treasury's account at the central bank with reserves instead of remitting back the interest the central bank receives from its bond holdings. In return, the Treasury would pledge Treasury bills as collateral, allowing it to spend the reserves any way it sees fit. e Fed and Treasury could strike a new "accord," whereby reserves from the banking system fund public-private partnerships for infrastructure spending. With tax reform and deregulation, a business-friendly environment could generate the needed investment and boost productivity. Of course, all of this depends on the outlook of Yellen's replacement, who, for all intents and purposes, could be appointed to a second term. As Bloomberg reports, a total of six people have found themselves in the public eye to fill the Yellen's chair at the end of her term, each with their own economic theories. The percentage of millennials that are able to afford the standard 20 percent down payment. Source: 2017 Zillow Group Report STAT INSIGHT 39%

• Cover