By Grant Welker It’s not just inflation, and it’s not just a matter of perception: the cost of buying a home in Boston has far surpassed the increase in wages in the past 50 years, according to a new analysis. In Boston, a typical wage in 1970 was $9,133, according to a report this spring by […]
By Ben Casselman The U.S. economy remained resilient early this year, with a strong job market fueling robust consumer spending. The trouble is that inflation was resilient, too. Gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, increased at a 1.6 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. That was […]
By Paul Krugman Do you remember the economy of the late 1990s? Or if you’re too young to remember it — I hope that’s true for at least some of my readers — what have you heard about it? You probably remember it as a time of prosperity — low unemployment and rapid economic growth combined […]
By Sam Goldfarb and Nick Timiraos Stubborn inflation pressures persisted in March, derailing the case for the Federal Reserve to begin reducing interest rates in June and raising questions over whether it can deliver cuts this year without signs of an economic slowdown. The consumer-price index, a measure of goods and services prices across the economy, rose 3.5% in […]
Treasury yields surged to their highest point this year on Monday, but instead of sparking a sell-off, they attracted a wave of new buyers. This unexpected turn of events reflects a shift in market expectations regarding the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy. Earlier forecasts anticipated three rate cuts from the Fed in 2024. However, strong […]
By Michael S. Derby NEW YORK, March 27 (Reuters) – Recent disappointing inflation data affirms the case for the U.S. Federal Reserve to hold off on cutting its short-term interest rate target, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Wednesday, but he did not rule out trimming rates later in the year. “There is no rush to […]
By Justin Lahart By one measure inflation is closing in on the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. By another it is still far away. Whether, and how, that gap closes could be critical to Fed plans this year. The Labor Department’s monthly report on consumer prices, known as the consumer-price index or CPI, is generally thought of as […]
By Rich Miller, Catarina Saraiva, and Steve Matthews Three top Federal Reserve officials hammered home the message Thursday that the US central bank is still on track to cut interest rates this year — just not anytime soon. Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson and Governor Lisa Cook said they’re optimistic inflation is still cooling despite a blip in January, but made clear they want more evidence it’s […]
By David J. Lynch As the Rockettes high-kicked their way to a record box office for the annual “Christmas Spectacular” at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, they were doing more than just entertaining. They were also showing the limits of the Federal Reserve’s power over the economy. If the Fed’s interest rate increases had worked after the […]
By Nick Timiraos Federal Reserve officials start the year with a problem they would ordinarily love to have: Inflation has fallen much faster than expected. It does, nonetheless, pose a conundrum. The reason: If inflation has sustainably returned to the Fed’s 2% target, then real rates—nominal rates adjusted for inflation—have risen and might be restricting economic activity too […]
