Washington Wire

With the U.S. facing a deadline to increase the nation's debt limit and the threat of an economic recession looming, Americans lack confidence in a variety of key U.S. leaders on economic matters. Gallup finds between 34% and 38% of U.S. adults expressing a "great deal" or "fair amount" of confidence in President Joe Biden, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Treasury…

WASHINGTON- Consumer prices in the United States rose again in April, and measures of underlying inflation stayed high, a sign that further declines in inflation are likely to be slow and bumpy. Prices increased 0.4% from March to April, the government said Wednesday, up sharply from a 0.1% rise from February to March. The Federal Reserve's policymakers have been…

Fewer than 4 in 10 adults say they trust President Biden, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell or congressional leaders from either party to fix the economy, according to a new Gallup poll. "With the U.S. facing a deadline to increase the nation's debt limit and the threat of an economic recession looming, Americans lack…

"Donald Trump himself wrote a book where he was talking about the need to increase the age of eligibility for Social Security to 70.". Trump's campaign has dinged DeSantis for supporting a GOP budget proposal while he was in Congress that would have raised the retirement age to 70 to receive Social Security benefits. As the debate over the future of entitlement…

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits jumped last week but remain low overall, even as the Federal Reserve has furiously raised interest rates to beat down inflation and cool the labor market. The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for jobless claims for the week ending April 29 rose by 13,000 to 242,000 from 229,000…

Rochelle Walensky, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced she will resign on June 30,  saying the waning of the COVID-19 pandemic was a good time to make a transition.

For more than two years now, Republicans have been predicting that President Joe Biden's big-spending policies will crash the U.S. economy into recession. "Growth in the U.S. slowed considerably during the first three months of the year as interest rate increases and inflation took hold of an economy largely expected to decelerate even further ahead," reported…

Legislation introduced this week would establish parity for 403(b) retirement plans serving teachers, hospital workers, clergy, and non-profit employees.

The Federal Reserve began raising rates last March, and 10 straight hikes have pushed the fed funds rate to a 16- year high. It looks like the Federal Reserve has finished raising interest rates, at least through its next meeting in June. The Fed seeks to drive inflation down to 2% from the 4.2% total for its favored price indicator in the 12 months through March.

Small businesses– the heartbeat of the U.S. economy– are beginning to feel the pinch of tighter credit conditions as the Federal Reserve continues to increase borrowing costs. That’ s in large part brought on by the actions of the Federal Reserve, which has been raising borrowing costs for companies and consumers for over a year in an effort to tame inflation and is…

WASHINGTON- The Federal Reserve is on track to raise its benchmark interest rate for the 10th time on Wednesday, the latest step in its yearlong effort to curb inflation with the fastest pace of hikes in four decades. Yet economists and Wall Street traders will be more interested in what the Fed and Chair Jerome Powell signal in a statement and at a news conference…

Inflation, which is the general rise in prices of goods and services, hurts our pockets, so to relieve that hurt, the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to make it more difficult for us to access money so we spend less and the suppliers are then compelled to lower their prices, due to lower demand for their products. In spite of the Fed raising interest rates…

Key measures of prices and wages remained high in March, keeping the Federal Reserve on track to raise interest rates next week for the 10th time since March of last year in its drive to defeat high inflation. And a separate measure issued Friday by the Labor Department showed that workers' pay and benefits rose 1.2% in the first three months of this year, faster…

—The government’ s report Thursday that the economy grew at a 1.1% annual rate last quarter signaled that one of the most-anticipated recessions in recent U.S. history has yet to arrive. Many economists, though, still expect a recession to hit as soon as the current April-June quarter— or soon thereafter. The Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate…

DACA recipients would have access to health care through Affordable Care Act marketplaces, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

America’s Health Insurance Plans launched an advertising campaign targeting Big Pharma.

In between near-constant pummeling by Republicans, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas revealed at a congressional hearing last week that a new federal system for setting flood insurance premiums needs more tweaking than expected.