Riding high on the success (and mind-boggling scarcity) of the NES Classic Edition, Nintendo surprised no one with the announcement of the SNES Classic Edition, a tiny version of the classic Super Nintendo console that comes with 21 of its greatest hits built in. But a few new features and departures from the original make it a distinct product — and one very much worth your $80.
At a glance
- 21 games built-in
- HDMI out
- USB powered
- Comes with two controllers
- $80, available September 29
All the bits
So. I’m an SNES guy.
I’ve had the same SNES since I was a kid — it’s all beat to hell, pieces missing off the back, bite marks on the controllers, and yellowed with age, and of course filthy. But it still works like a charm, and I still play it regularly. I love that thing, and I’m as familiar as one can get with the hardware and feel of the games.
I’m happy to say that the SNES CE (as we’ll abbreviate it) nails it, with a few mostly aesthetic exceptions.
First, let’s talk about the device itself. It’s a miniature SNES, obviously, and very like the original it is, though considerably smaller. But as with the NES CE, the imitation only goes so far. The power button is the same as the original, and the reset button also works.
But the eject button is fake, and the cartridge slot doesn’t actually open. I mean, why would either of those things work? Still, it’s a little disappointing that Nintendo didn’t think of some creative way to include them in the device’s function.
The only major problem I have...
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September’s Federal Reserve meeting left interest rates unchanged but sounded a hawkish tone. The Fed seems intent on hiking interest rates again come December.
Following Fed chair Janet Yellen’s remarks this Tuesday, interest rate futures markets bumped up the odds of a year-end rate hike to 81%.
The more immediate – and perhaps more important – policy move pending from the central bank is its plan to gradually reverse its Quantitative Easing bond buying program starting in October.
Yellen calls it “balance sheet normalization.” She is right in acknowledging that there’s nothing normal about the $4.5 trillion balance sheet the nation’s currency custodian has built up following the financial crisis of 2008.
Whether the Fed’s bond portfolio ever will get “normalized” to pre-crisis levels will depend on how markets react to the Fed’s attempt at Quantitative Tightening beginning next month.
The Fed technically won’t sell bond holdings into the market. Instead it will let bonds mature without rolling them over. The effect on the market will be as if a regular, reliable, very big customer stopped buying.
Initially, the Fed will allow $10 billion in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities to mature off its balance sheet per month. Over the next year, the pace of “normalization” will accelerate. It is slated to eventually reach $50 billion per month.
Quantitative Tightening, if it goes through as planned, will withdraw hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of liquidity from the financial system. Fed chair Yellen thinks the impact on long-term interest rates will be minor.
She has to know that the risks to the equity markets are huge. After all, her predecessor, Ben Bernanke, touted the bond buying program as an effective way to boost the stock