Economic Commentary
The service sector is still too hot for the Fed
ECONOMY & POLICY June 23, 2023 Chief Economist Eugenio J. Alemán discusses current economic conditions. The Federal Reserve (Fed) still has a very tough job ahead to bring inflation down to its 2% target over the long run while facing pressures from markets, which have a very different timetable than the Fed. At least, […]
The federal funds rate: Back to the drawing board
ECONOMY & POLICY June 16, 2023 Chief Economist Eugenio J. Alemán discusses current economic conditions. We have been saying, for many months now, that the more markets try to second guess the Federal Reserve (Fed) and push longer-term interest rates down, the higher would be the probability that the Fed would continue to increase […]
Federal Reserve pushes pause on interest rate hikes
MARKETS & INVESTING June 14, 2023 The decision ends a run of 10 consecutive adjustments by the central bank, dating back to March 2022. The Federal Reserve (Fed) opted not to raise the federal funds rate at the June 2023 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. This pause brings an end to 10 consecutive […]
The U.S. labor market and what we may see in the second half
ECONOMY & POLICY June 09, 2023 Chief Economist Eugenio J. Alemán discusses current economic conditions. It is clear that economic indicators have been all over the place since the end of the pandemic recession in 2020 and that there is a lot of noise in these indices. Last Friday’s nonfarm payrolls survey versus the […]