Economic Commentary

ECONOMY AND POLICY September 04, 2020 Chief Economist Scott Brown discusses current economic conditions. The August Employment Report in Perspective Private–sector payrolls rose by 1.027 million in the initial estimate for August. Normally, such a gain would be considered outstanding. However, in this recovery, that comes as a disappointment. The increase in jobs leaves us […]

ECONOMY AND POLICY September 04, 2020 Chief Economist Scott Brown discusses the latest market data. While there were a number of important economic releases, market participants ignored the data for the most part. Tech highfliers came down, leading stock market indices lower. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 1.371 million in the initial estimate for August, about […]

ECONOMY AND POLICY August 28, 2020 Chief Economist Scott Brown discusses current economic conditions. The shift in the Fed’s monetary policy framework was simultaneously a big deal and not much at all. In Chair Powell’s own words, the changes “add up to a robust updating of our monetary policy framework.” However, “to an extent, these revisions reflect the […]

ECONOMY AND POLICY August 28, 2020 Chief Economist Scott Brown discusses the latest market data. The Fed updated its monetary policy framework, moving to a flexible average inflation target. That means that the central bank will target an average inflation rate of 2% (as measured by the PCE Price Index) over time. A period of […]