Tag Archives: Inflation

Progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told Yahoo Finance in an exclusive interview that corporate “price gouging” has fueled inflation, placing the blame largely on dominant companies that hike prices and rake in profits without fear of competition.  She strongly rejected claims that government stimulus in response to COVID-19 has caused the price spike, warning that such a diagnosis of the problem could lead to spending cuts with dire consequences for millions of people… Source link

Inflation in December was the hottest in nearly 40 years, according to the Federal Reserve’s favored gauge, released this morning. U.S. consumers have been confronted with higher prices for everything from gasoline to groceries, cars to dishwashers. There’s one industry, though, that’s undergoing a pricing war that has prevented increases. Have you looked at your mobile phone bill lately? “At a time when seemingly every other industry in America is raising prices, the wireless industry… Source link

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday all but confirmed that the central bank will raise interest rates in its next policy-setting meeting in mid-March, as the central bank continues to battle rising prices. “I would say that the committee is of a mind to raise the federal funds rate at the March meeting, assuming conditions are appropriate for doing so,” Powell said in a press conference after the central bank opted to hold the short-term federal funds rate at near zero. But… Source link

With inflation at a near 40-year high, the biggest corporations are cashing in “on the backs of the American people,” by crimping competition and raising prices, said Senator Mark Kelly (D, AZ). In Kelly’s home state of Arizona, its largest cities saw cost pressures outpace the national average last year, with inflation rising 9.7% last year in the Phoenix metro area, compared to 7%, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “We’re at full employment [in Arizona] right now …… Source link

As 2022 quickly progresses towards the end of a turbulent first month for markets, it appears that the transitory vs. persistent inflation debate, which was a hot topic for financial markets in the late summer and early fall of 2021, is coming to a close: Inflation has been more persistent than a transient and impermanent blip in an otherwise vibrant economy. The Federal Reserve described high inflation rates as transitory as recently as November, and while some analysts remain firmly seated… Source link

President Joe Biden acknowledged that a major problem facing Americans remains high inflationary pressures, but said Wednesday that a large share of the dilemma falls on the shoulders of the nation’s central bank. “A critical job in making sure elevated prices don’t become entrenched rests with the Federal Reserve, which has a dual mandate: employment and stable prices,” Biden said on the eve of the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. The price stability mandate is in flux, where the… Source link

Interactive Brokers founder Thomas Peterffy says he is worried about the higher interest rates coming soon from a Federal Reserve behind the curve on inflation.  “I am worried about high interest rates because the Fed is talking about raising rates to 1% or even 2%. Inflation is 7% — 1% or 2% doesn’t mean anything. If they really wanted to stop inflation, they would have to raise rates to 4%, 5%, 6%,” Peterffy said on Yahoo Finance Live. Peterffy thinks the Fed wouldn’t go that high on… Source link

Higher pay to retain and attract employees impacted Goldman Sachs profits, and the big bank’s CEO says companies across industries are experiencing the same thing. “There is real wage inflation everywhere in the economy. Everywhere,” Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told analysts on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call on Tuesday. In the final quarter of 2021, the bank logged $3.2 billion in expenses associated with compensation and benefits — a 31% increase compared to the same… Source link

A whipsawed Wall Street can expect to see even more volatility ahead as the Federal Reserve gears up its first rate hike campaign of the pandemic era, one investor told Yahoo Finance this week. The Dow dropped 200 points Friday, as markets closed out a volatile week with its second consecutive weekly loss. The new year has gotten off to a rough start, following underwhelming earnings reports from major banks and lackluster economic data — adding to the risk of higher rates as inflation… Source link

This article first appeared in the Morning Brief. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe Friday, January 14, 2021 Don’t look now but the supply crisis isn’t getting better No, it’s not your imagination: Shelves in a lot of stores are still empty, and that item you ordered is taking longer than normal to reach you. All of which means the Great Supply Chain Crisis that many hoped we would leave behind in 2021, is clearly becoming a… Source link