The Federal Reserve delivered its bluntest reckoning Wednesday of what it will take to finally tame painfully high inflation: Slower growth, higher unemployment and potentially a recession.
The Federal Reserve boosted its benchmark short-term rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, to a range of 3% to 3.25%, the highest level since early 2008.
Democrats called JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup to Washington, D.C., to talk about pocketbook issues as households contend with the highest inflation since the early 1980’s and the midterm election looms just weeks away.
Overall spending has slowed and shifted increasingly toward necessities like food, while spending on electronics, furniture, new clothes and other non-necessities has faded.
The cost of services—which are increasingly driving consumer inflation—rose 0.4% in August, driven by higher prices for public transportation, car rentals and some financial services.
The hotter-than-expected inflation reading has traders bracing for the Federal Reserve to ultimately raise interest rates even higher than expected to combat inflation, with all the risks for the economy that entails.
Sharply lower prices for gas and cheaper used cars slowed U.S. inflation in August for a second straight month, though many other items rose in price, indicating that inflation remains a heavy burden for American households.
Inflation isn’t only costing small businesses money. It’s costing them customers as well.
Many merchants fear they’ll be forced to cut prices to move a mountain of unsold inventory. It’s an abrupt change from the previous two years when sellers scrambled to get enough products into Amazon warehouses to meet pandemic-fueled demand.
New research released Thursday concluded that the Federal Reserve will probably have to accept a much higher unemployment rate than it expects—possibly as high as 7.5%—to curb inflation.
The Federal Reserve’s hopes for a “soft landing” rest on a rarely occurring phenomenon: Unemployment will rise not because workers lose their jobs, but because more people without jobs start looking for work.
The increase that the government reported Tuesday will be a disappointment for Federal Reserve officials, who are seeking to cool hiring by raising short-term interest rates to try to slow borrowing and spending, which tend to fuel inflation.
Federal Reserve leader Jerome Powell acknowledged the rate hikes will hurt the job market and U.S. households, but he also said the pain would be worse if inflation were allowed to fester.
According to a Commerce Department report Friday that is closely watched by the Federal Reserve, consumer prices rose 6.3% in July from a year earlier after posting an annual increase of 6.8% in June.
In its previous estimate for the April-June quarter, the government had estimated that the economy had shrunk at a 0.9% rate.
The plan, expected to be revaled Wednesday, would likely eliminate student debt entirely for millions of Americans and wipe away at least half for millions more.
The home improvement retailer said it was offering hourly employees $55 million in bonuses to help offset the sting of inflation, which has remained near 40-year highs all summer.
Consumers remained wary of spending much on non-essentials: Sales were down 0.5% at department stores and 0.6% at clothing stores.
With inflation hovering near levels not seen in 40 years, higher-income Americans turned to Walmart to cut costs on groceries while its lower-income customers swapped out deli meats for less expensive hot dogs and canned tuna.
It’s the second fee hike imposed on merchants this year by the online retail behemoth. In April, the company added a 5% “fuel and inflation” surcharge to offset rising gas costs and inflation.
