by Anya Andrianova and Carter Johnson
BNN Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) — A dollar gauge saw its biggest drop in nearly four weeks on Wednesday as price pressures in the US services industry eased and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he wants to see inflation move sustainably to the US central bank’s 2% goal before starting to lower interest rates.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell as much as 0.4% on an intraday basis on Wednesday — the steepest decline since March 8 — with nearly all currencies from developed economies gaining against the greenback. Growth in the US services sector eased last month while a gauge of input costs decreased to a four-year low, according to a report by the Institute for Supply Management.
On Monday’s broadcast of NBC’s “Today,” President Joe Biden responded to a question on what he would say to people whose money isn’t going as far due to inflation by saying, “we have the best economy in the world. We’ve got to make it better.” And “we’re going to find out that what happened as a consequence of the crisis we had on health is going to have a lasting effect. We’ve just got to get people to move again. We’re ready. I think the country’s ready to come together…I’m truly optimistic.”
Not long ago the rich world was braced for a costly battle with inflation. Today it can seem as if the war has been won bloodlessly. In most rich countries annual core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, has fallen from peaks of 5-8% to a more tolerable 3-5%. In defiance of pessimistic economists, there has been no accompanying economic slump. Growth varies from booming (America) to respectable (Australia, Canada, Japan) to tepid (Britain, the euro area), but nowhere has it collapsed. In contrast to the disinflation of the 1980s, unemployment has stayed low. Has the world economy enjoyed salvation without sacrifice? Sadly, the answer is no; high inflation has left scars.
There was a delay in publishing due to a technical issue that has now been resolved. Serious inflation is on the way as gold soars to $2,300 and silver hits $26.20.
Gold prices shot to a fresh record on Monday, as investors continued to bank on U.S. interest rate cuts after data showed a key inflation gauge cooling.
Former President Donald Trump’s plan to impose a 10 percent tariff on all imports to the United States would hike prices and cost the average American household $1,500 annually.
Our latest theme is that the U.S. Central Bank, called the Federal Reserve, or the Fed for short, is NOT politically independent, but is in fact a highly partisan organization that leans left.