Category Archives: Weekly Financial News

Financial FAQs FREDppi What is worse, inflation rates, say, of 4 to 5 percent—slightly above historical averages, and average gas prices maybe $3.50 per gallon as they are today—or raising short term rates enough to make consumers pay more and … Continue reading →

Financial FAQs FREDserviceemployees Doomsayers, such as historian Niall Ferguson, may be doing the Federal Reserve’s job by predicting a recession or worse in the coming year. Their dire warnings are causing plunging stock prices for starters. And oil prices are … Continue reading →

Financial FAQs FREDcpiinflation Fed Chair Jerome Powell just said Americans must now feel the pain if the Fed is to bring inflation back to its long-term 2 percent annual target. But why 2 percent? It was the inflation rate that … Continue reading →

Popular Economics Weekly BEA.gov It looks like the slowdown in US economic growth may end as quickly as it began. Second quarter economic growth was slightly less negative in the BEA’s second estimate of GDP growth, because key drivers of … Continue reading →

Popular Economics Weekly MarketWatch I said last month that the June labor market was hot. It was even hotter in July. Every industry in the Labor Department’s unemployment report had positive job growth in July, with Education and Health alone … Continue reading →

Financial FAQs Calculated Risk I was being a bit facetious last week when I said that calling a recession at this time because we may have two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth is almost irrelevant, because it may be … Continue reading →