News about Fed

The FOMC meeting was a foregone conclusion nonevent. That is likely to be true of the next several meetings. Not changing rates partly reflects good news--the real economy is very strong and does not need cuts. And partly bad news--setbacks in progress on inflation.

From Bloomberg (below) on a closely watched US wage indicator. On a standalone basis, this suggests no quick relief for the #FederalReserve from rather sticky #inflation, especially in the services sector. The associated policy complexities are amplified by (bottom-up) signs of… pic.twitter.com/olpfc8Mssx

Takeaways from the Powell presser: -There's a high bar right now for the Fed to cut rates, but there's an even higher bar for the Fed to resume rate hikes -He's still expecting inflation to come down, in large part because of the shelter disinflation everyone has expected

Powell on taking politics into account when setting interest rates: "We just don't do that .... If you go down that road, where do you stop?"