Washington Wire

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she's increasingly confident that the U.S. will be able to contain inflation without major damage to the job market, hailing data showing a steady slowdown in inflation and a fresh influx of job seekers. "I am feeling very good about that prediction," Yellen said Sunday when asked about her previous hopes that the U.S. would…

Inflation needs to decline further before the Federal Reserve considers ending its more than yearlong string of quarterly interest-rate hikes meant to slow breakneck economic growth, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta chief executive told a student gathering this week at Broward College. Although he acknowledged consumer price increases have slowed…

WASHINGTON- An inflation gauge closely tracked by the Federal Reserve remained low last month, adding to signs of cooling price increases and raising the likelihood that the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged when it next meets in late September. Thursday's report from the Commerce Department showed that prices rose just 0.2% from June to July, the third…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent a letter to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands requiring them to determine whether they have an eligibility systems issue that could cause people, especially children, to be disenrolled from Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program even if they are still eligible for coverage, and requiring them to immediately act to correct the problem and reinstate coverage.

The 12- month inflation rate began to rise in early 2021 and peaked at 8.9 percent in June 2022. That's what the Federal Reserve's policymakers had in mind when they began to raise the federal funds interest rate in March 2022. The average rate on a 30- year mortgage is up from 4.2 percent in March 2022 to 7 percent now.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming- Business these days in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is still good- just not as robust as it was after the U.S. economy roared out of the pandemic recession. As the Federal Reserve prepares to hold its annual economic conference there, its policymakers are trying to guide the nation's economy toward something akin to what's happening in Jackson Hole.

Halfway through the third quarter, the economy is looking surprisingly strong. A tracker from the Atlanta branch of the Federal Reserve has real gross domestic product growth, based on the limited data we've gotten so far, tracking at 5.8%, which would be the fastest for anon-pandemic quarter in 20 years. If the U.S. keeps up this blistering pace, it would trump…

That's the highest it's been since April 2002 and comes after the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates aggressively in a bid to fight inflation. The monthly payment on a $350,000 house today, assuming a 20 percent down payment, would be $1,880, compared to $1,159 in 2021, when interest rates were below 3 percent. "A lot of buyers have been priced out," said Robert…

Federal Reserve officials hinted at the idea of a' soft landing' for the U.S. economy, minutes of the central bank's July policy meeting indicated, suggesting a recession will likely be avoided but cautioning on the need for near-term rate hikes. The minutes, taken from the Fed's policy meeting that ended on July 26, reflect both the central bank's official…

WASHINGTON- Even President Joe Biden has some regrets about the name of the Inflation Reduction Act: As the giant law turns 1 on Wednesday, it's increasingly clear that immediately curbing prices wasn't the point. "I can't think of any mechanism by which it would have brought down inflation to date," said Harvard University economist Jason Furman, who added that…

U.S. consumers’ near-term inflation expectations declined in July for a fourth month, reaching the lowest level since April 2021, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey. Median one-year-ahead inflation expectations fell to 3.5% last month from 3.8% in June, the New York Fed said Monday. Expectations for what inflation will be at the three-year…

The Federal Reserve will likely cease rate hikes next month based on slumping economic growth and hiring, a leading Midwest economist said. "Creighton University's survey results indicate that contrary to the Federal Reserve consensus, a recession in 2023 is still' on the table.' On average, 45.9% of supply managers expect a recession in the second half of 2023,"…

On August 1, the rating agency Fitch dropped the U.S. government's long-term credit rating from AAA to AA+. U.S. debt has surpassed $31 trillion and is expected to reach $52 trillion in 2033. The prediction of the Congressional Budget Office that the ratio of federal debt-to-GDP would nearly double from 98 percent in 2023 to 181 percent in 2053 is a nightmarish…

Just how good is the economics in Bidenomics? The Biden administration is in full PR mode, crisscrossing the country to promote the president's economic policies. Efficiency-minded economists emphasized the importance of expanding international trade, which brought the U.S. cheaper consumer goods.

The two new models are the NCOIL Biomarker Testing Insurance Coverage Model Act and the NCOIL Hospital Price Transparency Model Act

—The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose slightly last week but remained at a historically low level that points to a robust job market. Applications for jobless aid rose 6,000 to 227,000 for the week ending July 29, the Labor Department said Thursday. The Federal Reserve has implemented 11 interest rate hikes in the past 17 months in an…

“The confidence boost came as the United States and Massachusetts economies defied expectations of a recession in the face of 11 interest-rate increases by the Federal Reserve. The job market remains particularly strong, giving Americans money to spend: personal income, after taxes and adjusted for inflation, rose at a 2.5 percent rate in the second quarter,”…

It's hard to overstate how good the U.S. economic news has been lately. It was so good that it didn't just raise hopes for the future; it led to widespread rethinking of the past. Finally, an alternative price measure favored by the Federal Reserve also gave solid evidence of falling inflation, while employment costs moderated— that is, there's no hint of a wage-price…