Jerome Powell, Statement/Q&A: Press Conference, June FOMC (Video)
“Good afternoon. My colleagues and I remain squarely focused on our dual mandate to promote maximum employment and stable prices for the American people. We understand the hardship that high inflation is causing, and we remain strongly committed to bringing inflation back down to our 2 percent goal …”
Read MoreFed Unfiltered, Daily Report: Left-Hand Column (Our Opinion)
Jerome Powell, Statement: FOMC Press Conference, June 14, 2023
“We have raised our policy interest rate by 5 percentage points and have continued to reduce our securities holdings at a brisk pace. We have covered a lot of ground, and the full effects of our tightening have yet to be felt. In light of how far we have come in tightening policy, the uncertain…
Read MoreFed Board, Report: Summary of Economic Projections, June 2023
Fed Board, Statement: FOMC Press Release – June 14, 2023
“The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the longer run. In support of these goals, the Committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 5 to 5-1/4 percent. Holding the target range steady at this meeting allows the Committee to assess…
Read MoreFed Unfiltered, Daily Report: Left-Hand Column (Our Opinion)
BLS, Report: Consumer Price Index – May 2023
“The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.4 percent in May, as it did in April and March. Indexes which increased in May include shelter, used cars and trucks, motor vehicle insurance, apparel, and personal care. The index for household furnishings and operations and the index for airline fares were among those…
Read MoreOFR, Report: Technology Shocks and Predictable Minsky Cycles
“Major boom-bust cycles exhibit large positive productivity shocks followed by sharp, equally large reversals in productivity. We present a model in which news of a future productivity boom in an innovative sector immediately relaxes borrowing constraints, leading to a credit-filled boom. However, the expansion of credit is not sustainable and requires a contraction of credit…
Read MoreIMF, Report: Bank Competition and Household Privacy in a Digital Payment Monopoly
“This paper builds a framework to analyze how private and social optima diverge when a monopolist offers privacy-valuing households a digital payment system that collects data on their habits but can help them signal their creditworthiness to lenders. We find that the monopoly uses its pole position to play off both households and lenders against…
Read MoreFed Board, Report: H.4.1 Statistical Release
CBO, Report: An Update to the Budget Outlook: 2023 to 2033
“CBO’s projection of the deficit this year is subject to an unusually high degree of uncertainty. That uncertainty has increased since the updated projections were finalized in late March, in part because of new information. In particular, revenue collections through April of this year were lower than the agency projected. CBO’s projection of outlays for…
Read MoreIMF, Report: Central Banks Can Fend Off Financial Turmoil and Still Fight Inflation
“In practice, the boundaries between the different scenarios are fuzzy. Uncertainty about the health of the financial system and its resilience to monetary tightening will inevitably complicate central banks’ decision processes. However, through the lens of our proposed taxonomy, the recent events in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States suggest that the forceful…
Read MoreFed Unfiltered, Daily Report: Left-Hand Column (Our Opinion)
St Louis Fed, Report: The COVID-19 Pandemic and Inflation, Lessons from Major US Wars
“The fiscal and monetary policies adopted in the “war” on COVID-19 were indeed like past wars. Sharp increases in government spending with substantial monetary accommodation promoted a rapid recovery from the severe, but brief, recession in the second and third quarters of 2020. However, as in past wars, those fiscal and monetary policies also contributed…
Read MoreSt. Louis Fed, Report: Assessing the Costs of Rolling Over Government Debt
“In conclusion, the US government had $21.4 trillion in outstanding US Treasury debt as of December 2022. Given large increases to interest rates over the past year, we estimate that it will cost the US government an additional $98 billion to pay interest on their debt in 2023. This estimate is close to those made…
Read MoreAtlanta Fed, Report: Estimates of Cost-Price Passthrough from Business Survey Data
“Our survey approach allowed us to measure passthrough in three complementary ways: based on reported backward-looking growth in costs and prices; based on expected forward-looking growth in costs and prices; and via a hypothetical scenario posed to business contacts, which allowed us to effectively shock respondents’ cost[1]growth expectations by a common amount and measure how…
Read MoreFed Unfiltered, Daily Report: Left-Hand Column (with May Jobs Report Info)
BLS, Report: The Employment Situation – May 2023
“Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 339,000 in May, and the unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage point to 3.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in professional and business services, government, health care, construction, transportation and warehousing, and social assistance.” “The unemployment rate increased by 0.3 percentage point…
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NBER, Report: The NBER Digest, June 2023 – Bank Liquidity and the Dynamics of the Fed’s Balance Sheet (Page 3)
“The researchers demonstrate, using bank-level data, that increases in banks’ central bank reserves during QE were associated with increases in the volume of demand deposits and credit lines. In contrast, they do not find that the banks that provided customers with more claims on liquidity during QE reduced those claims when QT kicked in. This…
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