Neel Kashkari, Interview: Minnesota Housing Partnership
Inflation “So we have tools to bring demand down by raising interest rates to bring the economy back into balance. So we have to do that because if we were to lose control of inflation and people would lose confidence that inflation was going to return, it actually ends up leading to much worse economic…
Read MoreFed Unfiltered, Daily Trends: Tables (3/30/23)
Susan M. Collins, Speech: Remarks on the Outlook, Monetary Policy, and Supporting a Vibrant Economy
Q&A Segment Inflation “So let me start by just very quickly saying what is in the SEP, the Summary of Economic Projections, it just came out last week and the median does give a sense of what the overall committee thinks, and in my view is quite similar to my outlook. And that has the…
Read MoreTom Barkin, Speech: The Need to Be Nimble
Q&A segment was not available. Inflation “It is possible that tightening credit conditions, along with the lagged effect of our rate moves, will bring inflation down relatively quickly. But I still see three reasons why it could take time for inflation to return to target.” “First, the pandemic is still with us. Not the public…
Read MoreBEA, Report: Gross Domestic Product, Fourth Quarter 2022 (Third Estimate)
“The increase in real GDP primarily reflected increases in private inventory investment, consumer spending, nonresidential fixed investment, federal government spending, and state and local government spending that were partly offset by decreases in residential fixed investment and exports. Imports decreased.”
Read MoreFed Unfiltered, Annotated Graphs: GDP
NY Fed, Report: What Has Driven the Labor Force Participation Gap since February 2020?
“In this blog post we show that demographic trends, specifically population aging, exert a powerful influence on labor force participation. In other words, the participation gap largely disappears once we control for population aging, indicating that participation has recovered a great deal since the large shock induced by the pandemic. Other possible contributing factors, such…
Read MoreMichael Barr, Statement/Q&A: House Financial Services Committee (House)
The questions and comments from the elected officials of the House were more poignant and intense than the Senate. The topics however (the banking system, regulation/oversight) were the same, while the economy and monetary policy were only mentioned in general terms at this five hour and thirty-seven-minute hearing. A transcript was not ordered for this…
Read MoreFed Unfiltered, Daily Trends: Tables (3/29/23)
KC Fed, Report: What Consumer Surveys Say about the Design of a U.S. CBDC for Retail Payments
“Although researchers continue to discuss the possibility of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for retail payments in the United States, the success of a CBDC will depend on consumer adoption. To understand how a CBDC could provide a good user experience, recent surveys in the United States and in other countries have asked consumers…
Read MoreCleveland Fed, Report: The Effect of Local Economic Shocks on Local and National Elections
“This study aims to answer two related questions: first, whether or not voters react to the way an incumbent government manages the economy; second, whether that reaction depends on the origin of the shock (or “room to maneuver”). By exploiting a historical set of circumstances, we are able to isolate two economic shocks and their…
Read MoreRichmond Fed, Report: What Is a Crypto Conglomerate Like FTX? Economics and Regulations
“In this article, we revisit the economics behind crypto conglomerates and highlight the associated risks. One prevailing principle of financial regulation is “same activity, same regulation.” However, such a principle tends to identify regulation by activities on their own and, hence, might ignore the amplification of risks that occurs when activities are bundled in a…
Read MoreMichael Barr, Speech: Brief Remarks National Community Reinvestment Coalition Just Economy Conference
“For these brief remarks, I was asked to share my thoughts on the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), a topic of great interest to all of you and to me as well.” “As you are well aware, the Federal Reserve is working in partnership with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the…
Read MoreFed Unfiltered, Annotated Graphs: YC Spreads (Recession Indicators)
Richmond Fed, Report: The Landscape of Labor in Leisure and Hospitality
“There are signs that L&H employers are feeling less stressed about their staffing levels, which could possibly be a precursor to slower hiring ahead. Wage growth in the industry has fallen to pre-pandemic levels after a year of unusually rapid wage increases. Furthermore, after seven straight quarters where quarter-over-quarter growth in L&H wages and salaries…
Read MoreDallas Fed, Report: Calibrating Central Bank Inflation Messages is Key to Policy Success
“Lessons from the experimental data can be used by a central bank to inform the design of public messages that effectively guide rationally inattentive agents’ behaviors, using minimal attention resources.” “In a theoretical model that takes as an input the complexity faced by the public interpreting the central bank’s message, I found that, to effectively navigate people’s…
Read MoreFed Unfiltered, Daily Trends: Tables (3/28/23)
James Bullard, Essay: What Do Financial Conditions Indexes Tell Us?
“Furthermore, some variables are better reflections of the stance of monetary policy than others, which may result in a composite measure that doesn’t have the ideal mix. In particular, equity prices are known to be quite volatile and, at times, can move financial conditions indexes substantially. And yet, equity markets can reflect an overvaluation or…
Read MoreMichael Barr, Statement/Q&A: Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (Senate)
Q&A “Beginning in November of 2021, the board… Sorry, the Federal Reserve Bank brought forward these problems to the bank (SVB) and they failed to address them in a timely way. That exposure led the firm to be highly vulnerable to a shock, and that shock came on the evening of Wednesday, March 8th, when…
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