Donald Trump orders removal of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook | BBC News

August 27, 2025August 26, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook will file a lawsuit challenging her removal by President Donald Trump, setting up a potential standoff between the president and the US central bank.

“President Trump has no authority to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook,” her lawyer Abbe David Lowell said in a statement.

The president has said there was “sufficient reason” to believe Cook had made false statements on her mortgage, and cited constitutional powers which he said allowed him to remove her.

The unprecedented move comes as Trump has put increasing pressure on the Fed – especially its chair Jerome Powell – over what he sees as an unwillingness to lower interest rates.

Fed Keeps Interest Rates Unchanged, Experts Not Surprised | Entrepreneur

March 20, 2025March 19, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Federal Reserve officials kept interest rates at a target range of 4.25% to 4.5% following the conclusion of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Wednesday.

The range has stayed the same since December when the Fed cut rates by 25 basis points or 0.25%, but the Fed indicated that reductions to the rate could occur later in the year.

“We’ll be adapting as we go,” Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said in a Wednesday press conference following the decision. He noted that the Fed does not need to rush to make policy adjustments and “is well positioned to wait for clarity” on President Donald Trump’s economic plans, including tariffs

Fed holds interest rates steady but signals cuts ahead | BBC

March 21, 2024March 20, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The US central bank has left its key interest rate unchanged again, while it looks for more evidence that inflation is coming under control.

The decision kept the target range for the Federal Reserve’s influential rate in the range of 5.25%-5.5%, the highest in more than two decades.

The Fed is debating whether higher borrowing costs have done enough to ease the pressures pushing up prices.

Officials said they still expected to cut rates by the end of the year.

But after raising borrowing costs aggressively in response to soaring prices in 2022, the bank is proceeding cautiously.

The Fed is terrified Americans could get used to high inflation. It may already be happening | CNN Business

November 13, 2023November 12, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A worrisome sign for the Federal Reserve is starting to emerge.

The Fed keeps a close eye on several risks that could make its job of taming inflation even more difficult, such as red-hot consumer demand keeping some upward pressure on prices and the possible effects of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East on oil prices.

But the US central bank also pays close attention to whether Americans still have faith inflation will eventually return to normal. That faith seems to be eroding.

The University of Michigan’s latest consumer survey released Friday showed that Americans’ long-run inflation expectations rose to 3.2% this month, the highest level since 2011.

The S&P 500 broke out above a key level. Now what? | CNN Business

June 5, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The S&P 500 index on Friday closed at its highest level in almost a year. But that doesn’t mean that stocks are poised for a bull run just yet.

The broad-based index on May 26 closed above the 4,200 level for the first time since August 2022, when the market began to sell off and fell sharply to last year’s low of about 3,577 in October.

The S&P 500 ended last week up 1.8% at about 4,282, marking its best weekly gain since late March.

So, what caused the broad-based index to finally breach its level of resistance? The gains were powered by three key updates that investors cheered:

GDP: The US economy grew at a much slower pace in the first quarter | CNN Business

April 28, 2023April 27, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

US economic growth slowed to an annualized and seasonally adjusted rate of 1.1% in the first quarter of this year, as businesses rebalanced their inventories and pulled back on spending amid punishing rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.

The increase in the gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic activity — was far below economists’ expectations of 2% and represents a more moderate pace compared to the previous two quarters, according to data released Thursday by the Department of Commerce.

The January-to-March period was also marked in its later weeks by mounting fears that a meltdown in the banking sector and a pending debt ceiling crisis could trigger a recession.

How to take advantage of rising interest rates | CNN

July 28, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

With the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike on Wednesday — its fourth since March — consumers again face the question of where to park their savings for the best return and how to minimize their borrowing costs.

In its bid to beat back high inflation, the US central bank hiked its overnight lending rate another 75 basis points to a range of 2.25% to 2.50%. And more rate hikes are anticipated later this year.

“With inflation running north of 9%, we’re not at the finish line and there will be more interest rate increases to come in the months ahead,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com.

Here are a few ways to situate your money so that you can benefit from rising rates, and protect yourself from their downside.

Stocks week ahead: How resilient is the US consumer? | CNN

May 16, 2022May 15, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Worries about an economic slowdown are running wild on Wall Street. Despite concerns about inflation, higher interest rates from the Federal Reserve, supply chain issues and geopolitical turmoil due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Covid outbreaks in China, American consumers continue to do what they do best: shop until they drop.

Retail sales rose at a healthy 0.5% clip in March when compared to February and were up 6.9% from March 2021. Economists are expecting that the strong trend for retail lasted into April as well. The government will report retail sales figures for April on Tuesday. Forecasts are calling for a 0.7% jump from March levels.

In other words, experts don’t think negative headlines and recent market turmoil slowed down consumer spending.

Buckle up: The Fed is about to get tough on inflation | CNN

May 2, 2022May 1, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Last month, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since December 2018. Now there are growing expectations that the central bank is about to dramatically step up the size and pace of its rate hikes in order to put a brake on surging consumer prices.

St. Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard, one of the more hawkish members among the Fed’s regional bank chiefs, reiterated at an event Monday that the Fed needs to “expeditiously” raise rates in order to tamp down inflation. (Inflation hawks typically push for higher rates while so-called doves favor lower rates to stimulate growth.) Bullard suggested the Fed could raise rates by as much as 75 basis points.

Fed chair Jerome Powell has started to sound a lot more hawkish in recent weeks, but he may not want to move as aggressively as Bullard would like. But it’s clear that rates are likely to start climbing a lot higher soon.

Buckle up: The Fed is about to get tough on inflation | CNN

April 21, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment