New Fed Chair Janet Yellen made her first public remarks today, and its seems the FOMC is going to stay the course

New Fed Chair Janet Yellen made her first public remarks today, and its seems the FOMC is going to stay the course. First off, Yellen is refreshingly direct and relatively concise (for an economist). According to Yellen, the Fed will continue to scale back stimulus in measured steps as they have been doing. Only a major change in economic outlook will alter the reduction strategy for bond purchases. She also believes recent financial-market turmoil doesn't pose a significant threat to the US economy moving forward. Yellen also specifically mentioned the lower jobs numbers in recent reports and that the Fed needs more time to assess the situation. Overall, she believes the labor market recovery still has a long way to go and bond buying will continue until substantial improvement occurs. In other words, not much has changed.