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When will the Fed cut rates? Senators are likely to put Jay Powell on the spot when he testifies

Mar 7, 2024
He says there's likely to be a rate cut this year, but he won't say when.
Above, Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Jerome Powell testifies before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.
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If the Federal Reserve had a word of the year, what would it be?

Dec 13, 2023
We asked economists to give us a word of the year for 2023 that summed up the zeitgeist for monetary policy.
Economist Skanda Amarnath at Employ America says "fortunate" is the word he'd use to describe the Fed's 2023.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell called the current economy resilient. Whether it actually is depends on how you define resilience.
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Fed chair Powell's latest speech hints at caution regarding interest rates

Oct 20, 2023
Jerome Powell spoke Oct. 19 and said the Federal Open Market Committee would be "proceeding carefully."
“Given the uncertainties and risks, and given how far we’ve come, the committee is proceeding carefully," Powell said.
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Decreasing inflation by a final percentage point may be the hardest challenge for the Fed

Aug 25, 2023
Here's why the last part of getting to that 2% inflation target might be like trying to lose that last 10 pounds.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech from the Jackson Hole Symposium is televised on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.
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Will we get less gloom and doom from Jay Powell at Jackson Hole?

Aug 17, 2023
In 2022, Powell warned of painful moves to get inflation under control.
At last year's 
Jackson Hole Symposium, Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned of the pain that rising interest rates will cause.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Federal Reserve raises key rate for 11th time by a quarter-point, to highest level since 2001

Jul 26, 2023
The move lifted the Fed’s benchmark short-term rate from roughly 5.1% to 5.3% — its highest level in 22 years.
For the Federal Reserve, the drop in inflation from roughly 9% to 3% was the relatively easy part, some analysts say. Getting it down to the Fed’s 2% target will be harder and take longer.
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Milton Friedman’s “long and variable lag,” explained

Jul 24, 2023
A concept popularized by Milton Friedman in the 1960s still influences how the Fed talks about monetary policy today.
The phrase that Milton Friedman popularized — long and variable lag — still helps orient monetary policymakers today.
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No more business as usual for the Fed

Jun 29, 2023
Technology that can cause banks to fail overnight could force the Federal Reserve to upgrade its infrastructure, while continuing basic regulation to prevent failures from occurring in the first place.
Silicon Valley Bank's problems wouldn’t have been solved by an instant Fed bailout, said Wharton professor Itamar Drechsler.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

What's Fed Chair Powell trying to tell us about future interest rate hikes?

Jun 21, 2023
Jerome Powell has stuck to the same script on whether more interest rate increases are coming — but that script has a cliffhanger ending.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testifies before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.
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