Washington Wire

U.S. inflation is set to further recede in 2024, ending the year near the Federal Reserve’ s 2% target as economic disruptions from the pandemic fade further and prices of some goods even decline. The downdraft should keep the U.S. central bank firmly on course for lower interest rates, with cuts expected to come as soon as March. The December report on consumer…

SAN ANTONIO— Inflation has plummeted, and a coveted "soft landing" appears within our sights. For that we largely have the Federal Reserve to thank. Yet misguided politicians on both left and right are undermining the central bank's ability to achieve this feat ever again.

A growing number of states are opening taxpayer-funded health insurance programs to immigrants, including those living in the U.S. without authorization, even as Republicans assail President Joe Biden over a dramatic increase in illegal crossings of the southern border. Starting this month, Republican-controlled Utah is covering children regardless of…

—Bringing resurgent inflation down was never expected to be so relatively pain-free. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned of hard times ahead after the Fed began jacking up interest rates in the spring of 2022 to attack high inflation. The Labor Department is expected to report Friday that employers added a still-solid 160,000 jobs last month,…

Economists did not believe it was possible, but they've been wrong a lot lately, and in their defense it has only ever happened once before: We may be witnessing that rare achievement known as a soft landing. The US Federal Reserve's latest forecast expects the inflation rate to slide back down to 2% without much job loss or economic slowdown.

Even the Federal Reserve got disoriented, predicting an economic downturn at the beginning of the year and then yanking that prediction over the summer. This waffling peeved some major players in the financial industry, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who called the Fed out for providing unreliable guidance and being "100 percent dead wrong."

With economic forecasters rewriting their 2024 outlooks following recent moves from the Federal Reserve, The Conversation turned to two financial economists to share their thoughts on the upcoming year. D. Brian Blank and Brandy Hadley are professors who study finance, firm financial decisions and the economy. The U.S. economy is not in a recession and will…

In the House of Representatives, the GOP's "number-one priority for health care reform" is lowering health insurance premiums. If Republicans had their way, 4.8 million Texans would lose protection for their preexisting conditions, according to the Biden administration. To give Republicans their due, it is certainly true that premiums in the exchanges are…

With economic forecasters rewriting their 2024 outlooks following recent moves from the Federal Reserve, The Conversation turned to two financial economists to share their thoughts on the upcoming year. D. Brian Blank and Brandy Hadley are professors who study finance, firm financial decisions and the economy. The U.S. economy is not in a recession and will…

It's been a rough couple of years, economically speaking, as consumers and businesses accustomed to years of essentially free money, courtesy of the Federal Reserve, had to adjust on the fly to the sudden spike in interest rates. The Fed appears poised to provide relief in the new year. Rates on 10- year Treasury bonds now are 3.9%, down from 4.9% less than two months…

It's been a rough couple of years, economically speaking, as consumers and businesses accustomed to years of essentially free money, courtesy of the Federal Reserve, had to adjust on the fly to the sudden spike in interest rates. The Fed appears poised to provide relief in the new year. Rates on 10- year Treasury bonds now are 3.9%, down from 4.9% less than two months…

Growth in third-quarter gross domestic product growth was 4.9%, while the European Union's was near zero, and Germany may pull the continent into recession. The Federal Reserve and European Central Bank have enjoyed notable progress in pulling down inflation. For Mr. Biden, that’ s bad news.

Dec. 18— In September, 12 of the 19 voting members of the Federal Reserve Board said they expected the Fed to raise interest rates one more time before the year was out. They must have caught the Christmas spirit as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced last week the Fed would not raise interest rates. The Center for American Progress reported that low income…

Half of the children in the U.S. are eligible for Medicaid. Missouri's Republican-dominated state legislatures don't care whether the 52,000 children who lost their Medicaid eligibility in this state were naughty or nice. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which researches health policies, nearly 80% of young Medicaid recipients lost coverage…

The Federal Reserve's battle against inflation has led to sky-high interest rates, likely frustrating even Chairman Jerome Powell's biggest fans. The impact of interest rates on Treasury yields, which banks use to set mortgage rates, has made home ownership unaffordable to millions of Americans. Mortgage rates could be significantly impacted by the…

NABIP agrees that Medicare beneficiaries need to be protected from unscrupulous actors.

The Fed's decision to keep its key lending rate between 5.25 percent and 5.50 percent lets policymakers determine "the extent of any additional policy firming that may be appropriate," the US central bank said in a statement. The Fed's stance signals a continuation of its long-running battle to slow inflation towards its long-term target of two percent amid a…

"For the last quarter of 2023, 48 Medicare Part B drugs raised their prices faster than inflation, and some drug companies raised prices of certain medications faster than inflation for every quarter over the last year," the White House said in a statement. The White House on Thursday also announced that 64 drugs in total saw price increases that outpaced the rate…