09/03/2024

The Fed Welcomes a ‘Soft Landing’

However, many Americans do not feel like cheering

Last month, when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell delivered a high-profile speech last month, he came the closest he ever had to declaring that the inflation surge that gripped the nation for three painful years was now essentially defeated.

And not only that. The Fed's high interest rates, Powell said, had managed to achieve that goal without causing a widely predicted recession and high unemployment.

Yet, many Americans are not in the same celebratory mood about the plummeting of inflation in the face of the high borrowing rates the Fed engineered. Though consumer sentiment is slowly rising, a majority of Americans in some surveys still complain about elevated prices, given that the costs of such necessities as food, gas and housing remain far above where they were before the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in 2020.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Associated Press.