The price of everyday goods like gasoline, rent, and groceries fell.
Absent that rate cut speculation, it is more broadly expected that the Fed will approve an interest cut when the organization meets in September. According to CBS News, Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s comments to the Senate Banking Committee on July 9, part of his semi-annual update, suggested that if the data continues to be positive, a rate cut could come soon.
“The most recent inflation readings, though, have shown some modest further progress,” Powell told the Senate committee, “and more good data would strengthen our confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%.”
Powell also said that economic indicators suggest “that conditions have returned to about where they stood on the eve of the pandemic: strong, but not overheated,” and he intimated that the next “likely direction seems to be….that we loosen policy at the right moment,” before saying that he did not believe that the Fed would increase rates.
Powell has long advocated for an independent Fed and often faced attacks from then-President Donald Trump for raising interest rates. Trump, in anticipation of another term in office, has already said that he would not nominate Powell if he becomes president once more.
Powell still believes in the necessity of a Fed that is independent of the political whims of political parties and their leaders, as he told CBS News, “It’s actually essentially, literally essential. The good news is I think that is broadly understood on both sides of the aisle. We need to do our work in a way that’s outside the political process.”
RELATED CONTENT: Senior Citizens Are Catching Hell Economically Despite Inflation Dropping, Receiving Social Security Benefits
Source: Black Enterprise
