Thursday’s report from the Commerce Department provided the latest evidence that painfully high inflation is pressuring American households and inflicting particular harm on low-income families and people of color.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell repeated his hope that the Fed can achieve a so-called soft landing, but said the job had become more difficult.
Ever-increasing prices at the pump and grocery store checkout line aren’t the only places where Hoosiers can see the impact of inflation—state building projects are also feeling the budgetary strain.
Persistent inflation and rising interest rates have Americans as pessimistic as they’ve been about the future in almost a decade.
Two decades of sustained growth came to a close in Indianapolis last year when the city experienced a population decrease, raising some concerns about its economic future.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday underscored the Fed’s determination to raise interest rates high enough to slow inflation, a commitment that has fanned concerns that the central bank’s fight against surging prices could tip the economy into recession.
A White House desperate to bring down gas prices is having little success persuading refinery owners to expand operations, and more closures are imminent.
It’s a dizzying turn of events for investments and companies that at the start of 2022 seemed to be at their financial and cultural apex. The industry’s combined assets back then were estimated to be worth more than $3 trillion; today, they are worth less than a third of that. Maybe.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is offering a dose of optimism even as economists grow increasingly worried about a recession fueled by skyrocketing inflation.
An estimated 73,911 Hoosiers are currently unemployed and seeking jobs, the state reported Friday. That’s down from 88,240 in December and 100,696 in November.
Financial markets shuddered Thursday as they adjusted to the Federal Reserve’s latest attempts to address inflation.
The slowdown in demand threatens a wide range of businesses that rely on a summer pickup in activity as Americans vacation, take road trips and just generally hit the road in bigger numbers for a wide range of activities.
Economic history suggests that aggressive, growth-killing rate hikes could be necessary to finally control inflation. And typically, that is a prescription for a recession.
The result of the rate hikes is increasingly higher borrowing costs as the Fed fights the most painfully high inflation in four decades and ends a decades-long era of historically low rates.
Americans trimmed their spending unexpectedly in May compared with a month before, underscoring how surging inflation on daily necessities like gas is causing them to be more cautious about buying discretionary items.
A series of sizable increases would heighten borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, likely leading to an economic slowdown and raising the risk of a recession.
The producer price data captures inflation at an earlier stage of production and can sometimes signal where consumer prices are headed. It also feeds into the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures price index.
The prospect that the Fed will accelerate its credit tightening, further raising borrowing costs for households and businesses, drove the stock market sharply lower Monday. The broad S&P 500 index fell into bear-market territory.
There is little evidence that gasoline prices, which hit a record national average of $5 a gallon on Saturday, will drop anytime soon.
The S&P 500 sank 2.9% to lock in its ninth losing week in the last 10, and tumbling bond prices sent Treasury yields to their highest levels in years.
