economics
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Hedge fund billionaire warns inequality in US may spur ‘terrible civil war’
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Record number of NYC eateries sign up for Restaurant Week
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5 ways the next mayor can make NYC great again that have nothing to do with COVID
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Operation Warp Speed is an ‘unprecedented’ success and other commentary
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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated plans to keep interest rates close to zero and asset purchases humming along despite signs that the US economy is beginning to recover from the pandemic.<\/p>\n
After telling the Senate on Tuesday that he was concerned about inflation, Powell on Wednesday told the House Financial Services Committee he would keep the cheap money flowing until the Fed has made \u201csubstantial further progress\u201d taming employment, something he predicted is \u201clikely to take some time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dow Jones industrial average was recently up 290.26 points at 31,827.61 as investors cheered the prospect of easy money continuing to lift stocks even as it depresses demand for bonds.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers from both parties pressed the nation\u2019s chief monetary policymaker on whether the Fed needed to keep up its ultra-accommodative policies with jobs on the rise and bond yields finally showing some signs of life after both imploded in the first half of 2020.<\/p>\n
Powell did agree with some House members that the country\u2019s economic future has brightened. Still, he said unemployment remains troublingly high and that\u00a0“there’s a lot of slack in the labor market” to get to the Fed\u2019s goal of full employment.<\/p>\n
The Fed chair declined to comment on President Biden\u2019s $1.9 trillion bailout legislation, but said the package would have a negative impact on inflation.<\/p>\n
Through two hours of questioning on Wednesday, House members \u2014 the same committee that ran the Reddit Rally hearing last week \u2014 had not asked Powell about the Fed\u2019s actions on protecting the kind of retail investors who drove up the price of GameStop in January.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday however, Powell did acknowledge to the Senate that he believed the excess liquidity being pumped into markets by the Fed had an impact on causing the Reddit Rally.<\/p>\n