Update 854 – February Core PCE Up 2.8%; Increase from 2.7% Gain in January Data released this morning shows that the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation remains sticky above its target of two percent. Meanwhile, GDP growth for the fourth quarter of last year was revised up slightly. The new data comes as the Trump administration’s …
Update 843 — Trump, Musk Shutter CFPB;Fork in the Road for Reconciliation Process The stop-and-start effort on the Hill to act on Donald Trump’s legislative priorities — tax, border security, defense, and energy — via the reconciliation process hit a fork in the road this week. The GOP may have a trifecta but the House …
Update 842 — Constitution under Attack;Administration’s Assault on Law Expands This week saw new and continued attacks by the Trump administration on federal law and constitutional norms via dismantled programs, dismissed civil service workers, and personal data breaches, with more to come threatened. The emerging constitutional crises, accommodated by the GOP, are being challenged in …
Update 841 — Much Ado about Tariffs:For Border Security or Optical Illusion? Donald Trump pulled the North American economy away from a gratuitous self-imposed mutually-assured disaster this week — for the time being — averting a trade war that would have threatened key American industrial sectors, supply chain dislocation, unemployment, and inflation for the sake …
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 The broad and vague memo released by the OMB Monday was rescinded on Wednesday but …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 838 — Trump’s Barrage of EOsInvite Legal Challenge; Many Infeasible Immediately following his presidential inaugural on Monday, Donald Trump signed dozens of Executive Orders this week, many with drastic economic and fiscal implications, including several drawing legal challenges and others that may simply be infeasible without Congressional funding that Democrats may be able to …
Update 837 — Key Nomination Hearings,CPI Report, CTC Bill Lead Week Roundup This week, Trump’s nominees for Treasury Secretary, HUD Secretary, and OMB Director faced pointed questioning by Democratic Senators ahead of coming confirmation votes by the committees of jurisdiction and the full Senate. The three nominees addressed a broad range of economic issues with …
Update 837: Nomination Hearings Lead Week’s Roundup Read More »
Update 836 — Deregulation and Beyond:Econ. Policy Agenda in Congress, Part 2 A modest gain for core consumer prices by 3.2 percent year-on-year in December’s CPI report — just under expectations and the first reduction in core prices since July — led this morning’s news. We will dive into the report and its implications for …
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 — …
