By Howard Schneider WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. households, banks and firms are largely in solid financial shape, with the means at hand to cover debt payments and with strong enough buffers to absorb potential shocks, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said on Wednesday. Even commercial real estate, which fell in value as workers shifted to
Banks are seeing a slide in demand for loans — at the same time that they’re tightening lending standards. And the pressures, as noted in the most recent Federal Reserve survey of loan officers through the “Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices,” have impacted all manner of loan types, spanning commercial and
Mortgage rates increased again this week, and they should stay elevated until inflation slows and the Federal Reserve lowers the federal funds rate. At its May 1 meeting, the Fed announced it is keeping the federal funds rate unchanged rather than cutting it. At the end of 2023, many people expected the Fed to drop
So where does this leave us? Let’s look at my labor economic model that started on April 7, 2020, and see where are we today. 1. The current state of the labor market results from a series of events, with COVID-19 being a significant catalyst. I wrote the COVID-19 recovery model on April 7, 2020,
Jerome Powell offered a strong defense Wednesday of central bank independence when asked if the November election would affect the Federal Reserve’s decisions about interest rates. “I can’t say it enough: We just don’t go down that road,” he told reporters Wednesday afternoon when asked if the bar was higher for making rate changes close