Financial Times (March 17)
“A strange thing happened this week: calm.” U.S. data revealed higher than expected price inflation. “This time around, however, government bonds wobbled only slightly and both US and global stocks held it together around record highs.” The absence of drama indicates “interest rates are shedding their suffocating dominance over global markets, and that stocks are climbing not because they are huffing the speculative fumes of imminent and aggressive potential rate cuts but because they’re worth it.”
Tags: Calm, Dominance, Global, Government bonds, Inflation, Interest rates, Markets, Rate cuts, Record highs, Speculative, Stocks, Suffocating, U.S.
Bloomberg (March 2)
“European Central Bank officials confronting faster-than-expected inflation might also wonder if this is just the last stumble before their 2% target looms large. While the 2.6% outcome for February released on Friday — and a still-stubborn 3.1% result for the so-called core measure — present grounds for caution, the downward momentum in consumer prices is getting harder to ignore.”
Tags: 2% target, Caution, Consumer, Core measure, Downward, ECB, February, Inflation, Momentum, Outcome, Prices, Stumble
Bloomberg (January 26)
In the “race for world’s biggest economy,” the U.S. has extended its “lead over china.” U.S. GDP “rose 6.3% in nominal terms…last year, outpacing China’s 4.6% gain.” Some of that is due to inflation, but the result “underscores a broader point: The US economy is emerging from the pandemic period in a better place than China’s.”
Tags: Better, China, Economy, Emerging, GDP, Inflation, Lead, Outpacing, Pandemic, Race, U.S., World
Washington Post (January 25)
“The nation’s economy was supposed to have sunk into recession by now, dragged down by the highest interest rates in two decades and a resulting slump in borrowing and spending. Instead, the U.S. economy has kept chugging along. Even more encouraging, inflation, which touched a four-decade high in 2022, has edged steadily lower without the painful layoffs that most economists had thought would be necessary to slow the acceleration of prices.”
Tags: Acceleration, Borrowing, Economists, Economy, Encouraging, Inflation, Interest rates, Layoffs, Painful, Recession, Slump, Spending, U.S.
The Atlantic (January 4)
“The illusion persists, despite all evidence…. Poll after poll shows that at best, only 20 percent of Americans say the economy is doing better than it was a year ago.” But by very valid measures, many more are doing better: “Unemployment is lower. Wages are growing. Inflation is declining…. These are tangible improvements in household income that should be cheering people up. And still, they are not.”
Tags: Better, Economy, Evidence, Growing, Household income, Illusion, Improvements, Inflation, Measures, Poll, Tangible, Unemployment, Wages
USA Today (January 2)
“The post-COVID-19 economy was finally supposed to stop defying gravity and topple into a recession this year.” While “growth is expected to slow… other factors are likely to keep the economy afloat, forecasters say, including near-record home and stock prices, a further easing of inflation to or near the Fed’s 2% goal and the central bank’s tentative plans to cut interest rates more sharply than previously anticipated.”
Tags: Easing, Economy, Fed, Growth, Inflation, Interest, Post-Covid, Rates, Recession, Record, Slow, Stock prices
The Economist (December 28)
“It has been a tricky year atop the corporate ladder. Sluggish growth in many markets has set bosses scrambling to rein in costs just as inflation has spurred their workers to demand hefty pay rises. Fractious geopolitics and toxic culture wars have left corporate chieftains feeling like tightrope-walkers. The craze for generative artificial intelligence (ai) has had them fretting over looming technological disruption, too.”
Tags: AI, Bosses, Corporate ladder, Costs, Culture wars, Fractious, Geopolitics, Inflation, Markets, Pay rises, Sluggish growth, Technological disruption, Toxic, Tricky, Workers
CNN (December 27)
While the economic progress made during 2023 is remarkable, “there’s still a long way to go before inflation is where the Fed wants it,” partly because higher prices have been “pervasive” and “sticky.” They’re not easily reversible. “More than 90% of the items tracked in the Consumer Price Index are more expensive than they were in February 2020, with most price increases landing north of 20% and some (fuel and margarine) approaching 55%.”
Tags: 20%, 2023, CPI, Economic progress, Expensive, Fed, Fuel, Inflation, Margarine, Pervasive, Prices, Remarkable, Sticky
New York Times (December 26)
“Despite lingering inflation, Americans increased their spending this holiday season, early data shows. That comes as a big relief for retailers that had spent much of the year fearing the economy would soon weaken and consumer spending would fall.” It appears that “solid job growth is allowing people to spend more. And even though consumer prices have risen a lot in the last two years, wages have grown faster on the whole.”
Tags: Consumer spending, Economy, Holiday season, Inflation, Job growth, Lingering, Prices, Relief, Retailers, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (December 22)
“The Federal Reserve is winning its fight over inflation, boosting Americans’ spirits and offering greater reassurance that the U.S. economy can avoid a recession while bringing prices under control.” The PCE index favored by the Fed, “fell 0.1% in November from the previous month, the first decline since April 2020…. Prices were up 2.6% on the year, not far from the Fed’s 2% target.”
Tags: Boosting, Decline, Economy, Fed, Inflation, November, PCE index, Prices, Reassurance, Recession, Target, U.S.