Update 602 — Symptom vs. Disease:Fighting Inflation by Relieving Costs There is a difference between battling inflation, which is the Fed’s errand, and battling its effects, which is more of a fool’s errand. With prices up 8.5 percent from a year ago and midterm primary season starting next month, the temptation is to focus on easing costs …
Update 601 — Degrees of Debt:Decision Ahead on Student Loans The CPI Report for March, released yesterday, showed prices rose by 8.5 percent during the last 12 months. Energy prices moderated markedly during March. Some predict this will represent the high-water mark of an inflation rate that will remain elevated through the fall. The Biden …
Update 599 — Eyes on the Pump Price:Energy Costs and Biden’s Inflation Fight Hearings on the Hill this week focused on elevated gas prices Americans are facing at the pump, causing and affecting elevated energy prices amounting to a third of headline inflation. President Biden has taken up the battle against inflation. Some responses he has …
Update 597— Biden FY 23 Budget:Balance, Parity in Appeal to Center President Biden submitted his FY23 budget saying that budgets are statements of values. The statement here is muted, with an increase in domestic spending and an increase in military spending by about 10 percent, a puzzling nod to austerity of all things, investments in …
Update 596 — Arsenal of Democracy:Debating (How) America COMPETES The America COMPETES Act making its way through Congress could leave an indelible stamp on competitiveness, manufacturing, workforce provisions, and industrial policy generally. COMPETES provides overdue investments for the US to set standards for the global economy and to expand economic opportunities domestically. The bill rejects …
Update 595 — Power of Sanctions:All United on the Western Front President Biden heads to Brussels today, the most critical overseas trip of his presidency yet. Biden will bring with him US support for Ukraine, the NATO alliance, and other European allies in the form of a new round of sanctions. These will aid enforcement of current …
Update 593 — Fed Hikes Rates 25 bps:Brakes on Inflation, and Recovery Too? After fostering and assisting economic recovery in manifold ways, the Fed is reversing course. Today, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced the Fed will be raising interest rates by 25 basis points (or 0.25 percentage points). This is the first rate hike since December 2018 …
Update 592 — Inflation as a Cost of WarAnd an Economic Stress Test for the West Record job growth, rising wages, and massive GDP gains notwithstanding, yesterday’s inflation news distracts from the macroeconomic picture. The 7.9 percent CPI jump bears on all Americans directly. Many sense that the war Putin started in Ukraine and the consequent energy …
Update 591 — Jobs Boom Resounding?Sound Muffled by Drumbeat of Inflation Last week’s BLS jobs report was unprecedented — in a welcome way — showing a gain of 678,000 jobs in February alone and a staggering 7.4 million created since President Biden took office. With the Omicron variant finally fading fast across the nation, this job expansion …
Update 590 — Jobs Jump 678K from Jan;Economy Hot but Inflation is too (TY Putin) Whether we know it or not, the U.S. economy is hotter than DC in July. With 678K new jobs added last month and unemployment under 4 percent now, and with omicron largely behind us, the issue is the gaping misperception. This rosy …
