Update 811 — Fed Cuts Key Rate 50 Points;Jumbo Pivot Amid Labor Market Concerns The Federal Reserve finally cut interest rates today by 50 basis points, the first such cut since 2020. The Fed signaled that more cuts would come in its remaining meetings this year. The principal immediate beneficiaries are consumers with credit card …
Update 804 — July CPI Gain Under 3%;Dip Marks Lowest Increase Since 2021 Today, Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris released her lowering costs agenda, her most specific plan to date on economic policy, which she has pledged to pursue in her first 100 days in office. The agenda addresses a myriad of economic priorities, including …
Update 800 — See You in September:Powell Signals Rate Cut… Just Not Yet Today’s decision by the Fed to hold the prime rate steady at the 5.25 to 5.5 percent range yet again — where it has been for the past year — surprised no one. The long struggle to bring inflation down to the …
Update 796 — RNC Platform/Project 2025:Focus: Financial, Education, Industrial Policy The Republican Party, meeting this week at its convention in Milwaukee, has big policy plans for the American people. The GOP and think tanks supporting it have proposed “a second American Revolution” that will be bloodless “if the left allows it to be.” From mass …
Update 796: RNC Platform/Project 2025 Econ Policy: Part 1 Read More »
Update 787 — Fed Plots One Cut in ‘24;May CPI Shows Immaculate Disinflation The Fed today predictably held interest rates steady as it has since July of last year and adjusted its interest rate outlook over the rest of 2024, projecting one cut at an unspecified meeting later this year instead of the previously forecasted …
Update 787: Fed Holds Rates; Projects One Cut in ‘24 Read More »
Update 776 — Fed High-Wire Act Extended:Powell’s Pause with No Clear End in Sight The Fed has decided to hold its elevated interest rates constant yet again. The good news is that the Fed is implicitly confident that the economy can still withstand the higher rates for longer. The bad news is the recent data …
Update 773 — Supplemental’s Status, Roundup of Week’s Other Developments It isn’t the express train but the long-lingering local that the $95 billion international assistance package, originally requested by the administration over six months ago, is riding en route to the finish line in Congress. Once enacted, the White House will sign and herald most …
Update 764 — FOMC’s Dot Plot Thickens:Fed Holds Rates Steady, Cut Timing Unsure The Fed decided once again today to maintain its 5.25 to 5.50 percent interest rate, keeping rates at the same level since July, seeing neither an imminent resurgence in nor retreat from the annualized ballpark three percent inflation rate that has settled …
Update 751 — Fed Set to Pause Past March;When Does “Higher for Longer” Go Too Long? This week’s meeting of the Federal Reserve was not considered “live” — as another pause in rates was universally expected. Indeed, the Fed held rates steady today at the 5.25 to 5.50 percent target level, the peak at which …
Fed Set to Pause Past March;When Does “Higher for Longer” Go Too Long? Read More »
Fed Monetary Policy Coming Home to Roost The news yesterday that rates on the average 30-year mortgage hit 7.09%, a level not seen in 22 years, was a shock but not a surprise. As a byproduct of the Fed’s set of steep interest rate hikes to combat inflation, the mortgage rate news was foreseeable. But …
