Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in a Wednesday speech said the global economy has entered a “new world” when it comes to inflation, while insisting the Fed would stick to its goal of keeping inflation at a 2 percent annual hike. Powell said the low inflation era after the 2008 financial crisis is over and…
Author: Tobias Burns
Why the global inflation problem is bigger than US politics
Inflation may be the focus of a midterm cycle political blame game, but economists caution the problem — and the most effective solutions — are global. Rising prices were a focus of this week’s meeting of the Group of Seven (G-7) major economies. The White House said Tuesday it is investing $760 million to combat…
Senate retirement bill benefits wealthy Americans
A retirement bill currently under negotiation in the Senate gives rich Americans a tax break by bringing forward the payment schedule to remain revenue-neutral within the 10-year budget window, but ultimately adds to the U.S. national deficit unless a future Congress raises taxes. The Senate’s Enhancing American Retirement Now (EARN) Act raises the age at…
Watchdog says IRS still swamped by tax return backlog
The internal watchdog at the IRS said Wednesday that the agency is still buried in a mound of unprocessed tax returns, despite a progress report from the IRS earlier in the week that said the situation was getting better. According to the National Taxpayer Advocate, the number of outstanding paper tax returns, as opposed to…
Economists look past the Fed to fight inflation
Economists are looking beyond the Federal Reserve and thinking outside the box of monetary policy for ideas on how to fight inflation. With gas prices soaring, they are focusing largely — though not exclusively — on the energy industry and are increasingly coming up with ideas on how to bring down prices for consumers that…
Five ways the Fed’s interest rate hikes will impact Americans
The Federal Reserve Bank announced a 75-basis point interest rate hike on Wednesday, a 50 percent greater increase than the central bank had initially signaled it was going to make for June. The move comes after inflation hit a new, 40-year high last week, with consumer prices reaching an 8.6 percent mantel over where they…
Mortgage rates hit 5.78 percent in record spike
Interest payments for the U.S. benchmark 30-year-fixed rate mortgage saw the largest one-week upward movement in 35 years, hitting 5.78 percent as of Thursday. The rate jumped more than half a percentage point in the last week and is nearly double what it was a year ago, according to government-backed mortgage lender Freddie Mac. That…
New shipping legislation targets supply chain bottleneck
Legislation aimed at curbing the power of the container shipping industry, which has seen prices increase tenfold during the pandemic, breezed through the House Monday and could head to the Oval Office for a signature as soon as this week. The administration is hoping the law, which is designed to slash the bargaining power of container…
Stocks fall sharply on inflation news
Stock markets fell sharply Friday on news that inflation is continuing to rise, hitting a 40-year year high of 8.6 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average of major U.S. stocks fell nearly 2.75 percent to hit 31,392. The S&P 500 index fell 2.91 percent to 3,900. The technology-heavy Nasdaq dropped more than 3.5 percent to…
EV tax credits ‘on the table’ as Democrats try reviving parts of Build Back Better
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) recently threw another wrench into the Biden administration’s economic agenda by saying it was “ludicrous” to pursue tax credits for electric vehicles (EVs), which would make up half of all cars on the road by 2030 if White House economic planners get their way. But Democratic lawmakers looking to revive elements…