Unrest across the Middle East is pushing high oil prices higher, and that’s having a cascade effect that feels a lot like inflation as these higher prices bubble through the economy. Still, that’s not enough reason for the Fed …
This week we turn the calendar page, and that change brings with it a raft of economic data. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will deliver his semiannual monetary policy testimony before Congress, while Wall Street waits on more earn…
Having committed itself to ultralow interest rates and quantitative easing, the Fed is now caught in a double bind: Continue those policies and keep pumping money into speculative, inflation-hiking commodity bets — or end them…
Inflation has inched higher in the past six months, but that’s not a danger sign, but rather a harbinger of improving economic conditions and a strengthening recovery. And that, in turn, should lead to higher wages and more hir…
Before the Great Recession, U.S. consumer debt had risen fairly steadily for more than a decade. With the downturn, it finally dropped…until December’s small rise. However, a longer look at the trend of ever-rising debt shows…