Economics Watch

Assessing economic uncertainties complicates the Federal Reserve’s task in getting a handle on the Fed Funds rate.

In his latest Economics Watch column, Henry Willmore looks at inflation, wages, changes in the labor market, and issues in the banking sector and how the Fed is dealing with these issues.

Inflation slowed from the first half to the second half of 2022, both in price and wage inflation, which is good news for the Federal Reserve. However, a closer look at the data suggests that some of the drop was an unwinding of unusual price increases in the first half of the year.

One of the legacies of COVID-19 has been substantial disruptions to international trade patterns. This continued to play out in 2022 and complicates the outlook for 2023…

Some important leads and lags will affect the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and other measures of inflation over the next year. One is that between spot natural gas prices and electricity…

For a time, markets and asset prices proved surprisingly resilient in the face of the Federal Reserve’s efforts to cool off the economy. However…

Given the enormous uncertainties, both financial and epidemiological, facing families and businesses, the economic recovery that began this spring…

In addition to presenting difficult challenges with respect to saving lives, the coronavirus is posing economic policymakers with the most difficult…