The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has unveiled a new webpage that explains the Federal Reserve System’s dual mandate of achieving maximum employment while keeping prices stable, and shows key indicators of whether the Fed is actually fulfilling that mandate.
With Republicans in Congress unwilling to pass President Obama’s jobs bill, many believe that the Federal Reserve is the only institution left that can lift the economy out of its seemingly perpetual slump.
Consumer prices in the Western states, including New Mexico, rose 0.4 percent in September, and 3.5 percent in the past year. The New Mexico Business Weekly reports:
While much of the discussion around the role of the Fed in improving the economy has centered on the actions of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, the Occupy Wall Street movement will try a different tack today by marching on the country’s regional Federal Reserve banks — pivotal but often More…
Two writers for Reuters penned a piece today proposing a program of debt forgiveness for U.S. consumers. Arguing the national economy is sluggish due to high household debt — roughly 90 percent of GDP, a decline of 100 percent since the economic downturn began — financial institutions should negotiate More…
The Federal Open Market Committee, the guiding policy committee of the Federal Reserve, is gaining increasing attention from lawmakers and politicians on both sides of the aisle. Conservatives like Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) have dominated discussion over the Fed, with their accusations of currency devaluation and the “inflation tax.”
Mother Jones is running a series of infographics in its most recent issue that follow income trends in the U.S. Among other findings, they show that the top .01 percent of Americans make 875 times what the bottom 90 percent make, and that the rich have gotten richer and More…
The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee, which makes key interest-rate decisions, announced it plans to take no action this go-around. The pace of the recovery has slowed, it says. Employers aren’t hiring. Inflation is actually too low, it notes. But for the moment, it will do nothing more More…
Data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the Commerce Department this morning shows that Americans earned a bit more, spent a bit less and saved more in June — all in line with economists’ expectations. Consumer spending drives about 60 percent of the economy, therefore, economists do More…
We aren’t technically in a period of deflation yet, as core inflation continues to remain positive. But last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said this morning, the United States experienced the third straight month of technical deflation, with the price of consumer goods falling 0.1 percent.
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