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Powell Signals Delay in Rate Cuts Due to Persistent Inflation

by Craig Torres
BNN Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled policymakers will wait longer than previously anticipated to cut interest rates following a series of surprisingly high inflation readings.

Powell pointed to the lack of additional progress made on inflation after the rapid decline seen at the end of last year, noting it will likely take more time for officials to gain the necessary confidence that price growth is headed toward the Fed’s 2% goal before lower borrowing costs.

If price pressures persist, he said, the Fed can keep rates steady for “as long as needed.”

Continue Reading at BNNBloomberg.ca…

Powell’s Inflation Warning Drives 10-Year Treasury Yields to Breakout Level

by James Picerno
Investing.com

Bowing to recent data, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday conceded that inflation progress has stalled and the case for rate cuts has weakened.

The Treasury market has been effectively making the same case for weeks, but when the top central banker says it out loud the crowd notices.

“More recent data shows solid growth and continued strength in the labor market, but also a lack of further progress so far this year on returning to our 2% inflation goal,” Powell said at a conference yesterday (Apr. 16).

“The recent data have clearly not given us greater confidence, and instead indicate that it’s likely to take longer than expected to achieve that confidence.”

The 10-year Treasury yield is paying attention and rose to 4.67%, the highest since Nov. 6. The question is whether the benchmark rate is still trading in a range. Or is it poised to take out its previous peak of roughly 5% that was set in October?

Continue Reading at Investing.com…

U.S. Fed’s Powell Says Inflation Fight May Take ‘Longer Than Expected’

Washington (AFP) – The US Federal Reserve’s ongoing fight against inflation could take “longer than expected,” the head of the US central bank said Tuesday, further paring back the chances of early rate cuts.

from France24

The Fed has been battling rising prices with interest rate hikes since 2022, lifting its key lending rate to a 23-year high as it looks to hit its long-term inflation target of two percent.

But three months of higher inflation data since the start of 2024 have threatened to undermine the expectation of interest rate cuts this year, with one senior Fed policymaker recently suggesting that rates could remain at their current levels until 2025.

“The recent data have clearly not given us greater confidence, and instead indicate that it’s likely to take longer than expected to achieve that confidence,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said during an event in Washington on Tuesday that was streamed online.

Continue Reading at France24.com…

Fed’s Powell: Elevated Inflation Will Likely Delay Rate Cuts this Year

by Breitbart News
Breitbart.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cautioned Tuesday that persistently elevated inflation will likely delay any Fed interest rate cuts until later this year, opening the door to a period of higher-for-longer rates.

“Recent data have clearly not given us greater confidence” that inflation is coming fully under control and “instead indicate that it’s likely to take longer than expected to achieve that confidence,” Powell said during a panel discussion at the Wilson Center.

“If higher inflation does persist,” he said, “we can maintain the current level of (interest rates) for as long as needed.”

Continue Reading at Breitbart.com…

Inflation We Can Feel But Don’t Measure

by Joshua R. Hendrickson
The American Institute for Economic Research

In the aftermath of the pandemic, the United States experienced the highest rates of inflation of the last four decades. More recently, inflation rates have been trending lower. Nonetheless, a number of economists have been surprised to observe that consumers aren’t very happy despite signs that the inflation rate is on a trajectory towards the Federal Reserve’s target of two percent. Although a number of economists have been quick to dismiss consumer pessimism or explain that things are actually quite good, a recent paper by economists at Harvard and the IMF offers an explanation for pessimism: perhaps consumer measures of the cost of living differ from the price indices that economists use to measure inflation.

A price index is just a weighted average of prices. People often reference the price index as capturing “the cost of living.” This is indeed the purpose of constructing a price index.

Continue Reading at AIER.org…

Rising Inflation in March Didn’t Deter Consumers, as Retail Sales Jumped 0.7%. Much Higher Than Expected.

by Jeff Cox
CNBC.com

Rising inflation in March didn’t deter consumers, who continued shopping at a more rapid pace than anticipated, the Commerce Department reported Monday.

Retail sales increased 0.7% for the month, considerably faster than the Dow Jones consensus forecast for a 0.3% rise though below the upwardly revised 0.9% in February, according to Census Bureau data that is adjusted for seasonality but not for inflation.

The consumer price index increased 0.4% in March, the Labor Department reported last week in data that also was higher than the Wall Street outlook. That means consumers more than kept up with the pace of inflation, which ran at a 3.5% annual rate for the month, below the 4% retail sales increase.

Continue Reading at CNBC.com…

This is the Weapon That is Being Used to Destroy America’s Middle Class

by Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse Blog

The middle class in the United States has been steadily shrinking, and the gap between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of us has grown to absurd proportions. But it wasn’t always this way. When I was growing up in the 1980s, it seemed like almost everyone was middle class. Of course there were wealthy people and poor people in the 1980s too, but the vast majority of the population was comfortably somewhere in the middle. Sadly, things have changed so much since that time. Today, most of the people that I know are struggling. According to a report that was just released, in all 50 states it now takes an income of more than $100,000 in order for a family of four to live “the American Dream”…

A new report from GOBankingRates used that framework to analyze how much money a family of two adults and two children would need in each state to own a home, a car and a pet. The report tallied estimated annual essential expenses for such a family and then doubled that figure.

Continue Reading at TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com…

Inflation Remains Raised Largely Due to High Gas and Rents

by Christopher Rugaber
PBS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer inflation remained persistently high last month, boosted by gas, rents, auto insurance and other items, the government said Wednesday in a report that will likely give pause to the Federal Reserve as it weighs when and by how much to cut interest rates this year.

Prices outside the volatile food and energy categories rose 0.4 percent from February to March, the same accelerated pace as in the previous month. Measured from a year earlier, these core prices were up 3.8 percent, unchanged from the year-over-year rise in February. The Fed closely tracks core prices because they tend to provide a good read of where inflation is headed.

The March figures, the third straight month of inflation readings well above the Fed’s target, provide concerning evidence that inflation is stuck at an elevated level after having steadily dropped in the second half of 2023.

Continue Reading at PBS.org…

Three Investments to Consider with Inflation Rising

by Joshua Rodriguez
CBS News

As inflation continues to tick up in spite of a higher interest rates, it may be time to take a second look at your investments. Stocks tumbled Wednesday as updated inflation data dimmed the chances for rate cuts in 2024, demonstrating how rising inflation can threaten your investment assets.

But the truth is, inflation can threaten any savings you have. That is, unless you make moves to protect it.

The current inflation rate is 3.5% and not only will that make borrowing more expensive but it could affect the returns you get with your traditional investments. But, how do you protect your investment portfolio from rising inflation? One way to do so is by investing in assets that generally perform well during inflationary periods.

Continue Reading at CSBNews.com…

March Inflation Data Makes for Higher-Than-Expected Cola Adjustments in 2025

by Alvin Buyinza
Mass Live

Social Security beneficiaries should expect a higher cost-of-living adjustment next year after the government reported a rise in inflation in March, according to an advocacy group.

The Senior Citizens League, the nation’s largest nonpartisan senior advocacy group, has increased its prediction for the long-term cost-of-living adjustment – or COLA – for 2025 to 2.6%, up from 1.75% last month, according to a press brief from the organization.

The increase is due to the rise in the consumer price index, a measurement of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of goods and services, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Continue Reading at MassLive.com…