• Aug 23, 2024

Takeaways from Fed Chair Powell's speech at Jackson Hole

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell all but proclaimed victory in the fight against inflation and signaled that interest rate cuts are coming in a much-anticipated speech Friday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Under Powell, the Fed raised its benchmark rate to the highest level in 23 years to subdue inflation that two years ago was running at the hottest pace in more than four decades.

  • Aug 23, 2024

Fed's Goolsbee: Current rate policy too tight for economy

(Reuters) -Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee said on Friday monetary policy is quite tight and is no longer aligned with current economic conditions, although he declined to provide specific guidance on what lies ahead for it. "I usually don't like saying, tying our hands before a meeting, but I've been saying for some time, if you take the level of tightness" now seen in the Fed's interest rate target, "you only want to be that tight on purpose if you're trying to cool an overheating economy, and this is not overheating," Goolsbee said in a CNBC interview. Goolsbee spoke on the cable television network after a speech earlier in the day from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who clearly signaled the time of Fed rate cuts is fast arriving amid falling inflation pressures and rising risks to the job market.

  • Aug 23, 2024

Goolsbee Says It’s Critical Fed Keeps Eye on Cooling Job Market

(Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee said it’s time to pay more attention to the employment side of the central bank’s dual mandate now that inflation is cooling toward the 2% target.Most Read from BloombergChicago's Migrant Surge Is Stirring Trouble for Democrats in DNC Host CitySydney Central Train Station Is Now an Architectural DestinationWith Housing Costs High, Democrats Hone YIMBY MessageWith Self-Driving Vans, Hamburg Tries to Make Microtransit WorkUK

  • Aug 23, 2024

Analysis-Powell's Fed not shy about election-year cuts, ready to defend job market

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell made it clear on Friday the U.S. central bank would not shy away from pivoting to interest rate cuts in the final weeks of a presidential election campaign and that protecting the job market was now its top priority. "The time has come for policy to adjust," Powell said in a speech to the Kansas City Fed's annual Jackson Hole conference in a strong signal the central bank will start cutting rates in mid-September, roughly seven weeks before the Nov. 5 election. His remarks - essentially a declaration that the Fed's fight with inflation was over and safeguarding employment was now at the top of its to-do list - came the morning after Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for president, a development that has disrupted a contest that had been leaning toward former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate.

  • Aug 23, 2024

OK, Bloomer!

Bloomberg’s editorial board says Harris and Trump shouldn’t “pander” to crypto. The piece itself panders to stereotypes about the digital assets industry.