Update 545 — Powell Promotes Recovery;Accommodates Growth and Mild Inflation Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testified this week before the House Financial Services and Senate Banking Committees. Since his last testimony in February, the economy has begun to improve, with strong GDP growth expected this year. Inflation, as expected, has increased. He has much to say about …
Update 535 — Optimal Levels of Inflation:What to Hope For and Expect in Recovery The May jobs report, out today, reflects an economy in transition, headed steadily toward recovery. U.S. employers added 559,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate went down by 0.3 percent. The favorable trajectory still leaves open the length of recovery …
Update 534 — Megabank CEOs Hit Hill:Issues, Attacks Heard; Less So Consensus The CEOs of the six “megabanks” testified before the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees this week, addressing issues ranging from the pandemic response to climate risk to racial justice to wage disparities. Some questions arose concerning the banking sector itself but …
Update 532 — A Round with the Regulators:Financial Policy Issues Left, Front and Center These are flush times for banks — lending volume, interest rates, and share prices are on the rise and the economy is primed for a vertical recovery. What could go wrong? This week, Congress heard from the heads of the financial …
Update 527 — Yellen Moves MarketsAnd Can Remove FSOC Roadblocks The Federal Reserve surprised no one last Wednesday by continuing its near-zero interest rate policy and large-scale asset purchases. But markets tumbled Tuesday after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen mentioned the possibility of raising rates, at some point, to prevent the economy from overheating. In the …
Update 518 — Route to Recovery:Any Bandwidth for Public Banking? Later this afternoon, President Biden will outline his multi-trillion dollar infrastructure investment plan, his framework for the Recovery Act. The centerpiece of the pie is infrastructure investment and modernization, including broadband access, a vital concern for the 24 percent of rural Americans and millions of …
Update 357 — Ex-Im Bank Reauthorization; Bizarre Bugbear of Incoherent Opposition If ever there were a government program a Trump administration could love, it would be the Ex-Im Bank. It finances American trade and jobs and supports critical industry, including national defense contractors, doing so at a profit to taxpayers. Yet, to run the Bank, …
Update 352 — Wall St. Regulators Face Music of House ‘18 Class at HFSC Hearing Tomorrow Today, we mourn the loss of Alice Rivlin, founding director of the Congressional Budget Office and a “decathlete” of high-level public office. Her steady hand and even temper weathered multiple administrations and several financial crises, both local and national. …
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Update 349 — Today’s Leveraged Loan Market: Animal Spirits or 2020 Recessionary Canary? The leveraged loan market may not sound like a factor in the 2020 elections, but 18 months before the 2008 election, leverage was already off the dial, Wall Street was booming, and no one predicted the economic or electoral consequences. Odds that …
Update 345 — HFSC Megabank CEO Hearing:Private Custodians of Public Systemic Risk The CEOs of the nation’s biggest financial institutions will meet on Capitol Hill tomorrow for the first time since the financial crisis for a House Financial Services Committee hearing. The purpose of this unusual gathering is to hold the firms these CEOs lead …
