Washington Wire

WASHINGTON– Federal Reserve officials signaled Wednesday that they still expect to cut their key interest rate three times in 2024, fueling a rally on Wall Street, despite signs that inflation remained elevated at the start of the year. Speaking at a news conference, Chair Jerome Powell said the surprising pickup in inflation in January and February hadn't…

—Two weeks ago, Chair Jerome Powell suggested that the Federal Reserve was“ not far” from gaining the confidence it needed that inflation was headed sustainably toward its 2% target level, which would allow it to start cutting its benchmark interest rate. It was a tantalizing suggestion, because a cut in the Fed's key rate has typically boosted the economy by…

President Biden, whose spending policies have been blamed for skyrocketing mortgage rates, is seeking ways to cut costs for homebuyers by trimming fees associated with loans and eliminating title insurance for some borrowers. The Federal Reserve has raised rates several times during the Biden administration to help stabilize near-record inflation.

The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to keep its key lending rate unchanged again on Wednesday, as policymakers continue discussions over when to start rate cuts and launch the next phase in their long-running battle against inflation. The Fed has raised interest rates to a 23- year high of between 5.25 and 5.50 percent as it looks to return inflation…

President Joe Biden said Thursday he is against the proposed sale of US Steel to Japan's Nippon Steel, as election year considerations appeared to outweigh the risk of angering key ally Japan. Biden's intervention in the planned $14.1 billion acquisition comes less than a month before he hosts Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a state visit to the…

President Biden's reelection campaign launched an effort in battleground states this week to hit former President Trump over his threats to Social Security and Medicare, the campaign first told The Hill. The events will take place in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Milwaukee; Madison, Wisc.; Lansing, Mich.; Las Vegas and Phoenix.

Recently released government data hammered home what we have known for at least a year: A national housing shortage, not broad-based price increases, is driving inflation. Inflation over the past year was 3.1%– far less than in 2021 but still high enough for the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates elevated. However, unlike the inflation we saw soon after the…

WASHINGTON— Consumer prices in the United States picked up last month, a sign that inflation remains a persistent challenge for the Federal Reserve and for President Joe Biden’ s re-election campaign, both of which are counting on a steady easing of price pressures this year. Prices rose 0.4% from January to February, higher than the previous month’ s figure of…

—Consumer prices likely rose last month at a pace that would exceed the Federal Reserve's inflation target, underscoring why the Fed is being cautious as it considers when to cut interest rates and suggesting that inflation will remain a potent issue in this year's presidential election. Yet Tuesday's report from the Labor Department may also show that…

—President Joe Biden is issuing a budget plan Monday aimed at getting voters' attention: tax breaks for families, lower health care costs, smaller deficits and higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Unlikely to pass the House and Senate to become law, the proposal for fiscal 2025 is an election-year blueprint about what the future could hold if Biden and…

WASHINGTON– A sweeping bank regulatory proposal will be significantly revised by year's end, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday, a potential victory for the large banks that have aggressively opposed the likely changes. The NAACP and some other civil rights groups have expressed opposition out of concern that the proposal would make it…

WASHINGTON— Chairman Jerome Powell reinforced his belief Wednesday that the Federal Reserve will cut its key interest rate this year but said it first wants to see more evidence that inflation is falling sustainably back to the Fed's 2% target. His comments to a House committee largely echoed those he made at a news conference Jan. 31. On the first of his two days…

The good news for President Biden: Americans are finally starting to appreciate the strength of the U.S. economy. The U.S. economy has defied recession forecasts and continued chugging along during Biden's term. For instance, a Wall Street Journal poll released over the weekend found that 31 percent of voters said the economy had gotten better over the past two…

In a new comment letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, AHIP president and CEO Mike Tuffin urged the agency to remedy proposed policy changes that would diminish the value and affordability of coverage and benefits that millions of Medicare Advantage and Part D beneficiaries depend on for better health outcomes and financial security.

The U.S. economy is humming and there are hundreds of thousands of jobs being added every month. In a stunning burst of hiring to start the year, the nation added 353,000 jobs in January, shrugging off the highest interest rates in two decades that have been put in place by the U.S. Federal Reserve in part to cool off hiring and spending. On Thursday, Electronic Arts…

The Federal Reserve of the United States is tasked with administering monetary policy to safeguard and hopefully steer the U.S. economy through calm waters and avoid hitting the rocks of recession or depression. No easy task does the Federal Reserve have. Although many argue an economy is too complicated with too many working parts to pilot by any one entity,…

Slower inflation was supposed to be a sign that the economy was cooling, all part of the Federal Reserve's plan for higher interest rates to restore balance to the economy. For a while, things looked on track. Perhaps nobody summed up the mood around consumers better than Walmart Inc. Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey when he said: "There was largely a…