Update 840 — Week of Chaos, Confusion; GDP Growth Slows in 4th Quarter 2024 The country was plunged this week into a frenzy of chaos and confusion amid the Trump administration’s on-again, off-again freeze on federal grants and loans spending. The broad and vague memo released by the OMB Monday was rescinded on Wednesday but …
Update 839 — Fed Hits Pause on Rates;OMB Does Likewise on Spending Freeze The Federal Reserve hit pause, as expected, on interest rates at the conclusion of its first rate-setting meeting of the year this afternoon. The interest rate decision comes less than two weeks after President Trump was sworn in for a second term …
Update 835 – 256K Jobs Added in Dec. Too Much of a Good Thing for the Fed? This morning’s Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report that the U.S. added 256,000 jobs and unemployment ticked back down to 4.1 percent in December shows the American economy closing 2024 on a surprisingly strong note. The report — …
Update 833 — Continuing Irresolution:Speaker Still ISO Plan to Avert Shutdown Mike Tyson once remarked that boxers have a plan going into every fight — until they get punched in the mouth. Speaker Johnson had a viable, bipartisan plan A this week to keep the government funded through mid-March and avert a shutdown via a …
Update 832 — Fed Again Cuts Rates 25bp.Econ. Expansion Seen Likely to Continue With today’s 25 basis point interest rate cut, no surprise to most observers, the Fed has now brought rates down by a full percent in the last four months. But the inflation dragon has not been slain — recent PCE and CPI …
Update 831 — CPI’s Elusive Soft Landing;FTC Pick Named; FSOC, SEC’s Stalled Out This week’s CPI report for November showed the road back to the Fed’s two percent target inflation rate remains bumpy – but the new data is unlikely to push the Fed to readjust its downward interest rate trajectory – though Donald Trump …
Update 827 — Trump Floats Major Tariff Plan;Bessent is Treasury Pick; DOGE Days Ahead President-elect Trump has now named all of his Cabinet-level nominees — including his pick for Treasury Secretary — as well as choices for other critical economic policy positions, which we cover below. Not among these are Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, …
Update 826 — First of Trump’s Econ. Policy Noms;End of Basel III/Endgame?; Other Developments President-elect Trump continued announcing Cabinet nominees this week as his administration begins to take shape. The early appointments signal the incoming Trump administration’s intention to elevate the priorities of wealthy interests who appear loyal to Trump and willing to undermine institutional …
Update 824 – Inflation Under Trump: What Americans Should Look Out For? Yesterday’s CPI report showed inflation rising slightly to 2.6 percent year-on-year, up from 2.4 percent in September. The new data shows that inflation remains above the Federal Reserve’s two percent target, but has fallen significantly from its peak of 9.1 percent in mid-2022. High …
Update 823 — Trump Rolls to Second TermFed Rate Cut 25bp; Powell Defiant on Trump Supported by 56 percent of working-class voters, themselves 57 percent of the electorate, and taking down the Blue Wall, Donald Trump won the presidential popular vote majority for the first time, en route to a 295-226 electoral college margin (on …
