Hiking rates while the economy continues to expand is the latest challenge for Fed officials, who have spent the past two years slamming coronavirus shutdowns and the worst labor market shock in history.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has warned that the war could increase inflation and cause households to cut spending. But he has also indicated that the conflict has not changed the central bank’s thinking on interest rates.
“To ensure that the economy continues to expand and survive a recession, I think it’s important to normalize interest rates,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday.
“The important thing for low- and middle-income families is to survive the recession,” Zandi said.
Low-income households already battling high prices will be hit by the recession.
The pandemic inflationary trend was triggered by products and services that were linked to higher demand and supply chain disruption, such as cars. But the high prices soon spread throughout the economy. In the year ended February, US consumer prices rose 7.9% without seasonal adjustment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. This was the biggest increase since January 1982.
McDonald’s changed Russia. Now leaving this country
When McDonald’s first opened its doors in Moscow, it was a big deal.
The space of Pushkin Square was huge, with a capacity to seat hundreds of people. It was the largest McDonald’s restaurant in the world at the time. In most ways, it resembled any other McDonald’s of that era. But beneath the gold arch was a hammer and sickle flag and an international theme inside, with a model of London’s Big Ben in the dining room.
McDonald’s arrival in Moscow was much more than just a Big Mac and fries, Williams College noted Dara Goldstein, Wilcox B., and Harriet M. EdSit Russian, Professor Emerita. It was the most prominent example of glasnost in action, with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev attempting to open his crumbling country to international relations.
“There was a really visible crack in the iron screen,” she said. “It was very symbolic about the changes that were happening.” About two years later, the Soviet Union would collapse.
After that first location opened, McDonald’s expanded its reach within the country. As of last week, about 850 locations were employed in Russia.
But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted McDonald’s to change course, at least temporarily. On Tuesday, the company announced it would halt operations at those restaurants following similar decisions from other Western firms and pressure from critics.
For Goldstein, the moment is just as symbolic, but there is little hope.
“If the opening of McDonald’s in 1990 marks the beginning of a new era in Soviet life with greater freedom, then the current exit of the company represents the closure of not only business, but of society as a whole,” he said. said.
next
Monday: eurogroup finance ministers meeting
Tuesday: US Producer Price Index; OPEC report
Wednesday: Federal Reserve rate decisions; US retail sales; Income from BMW, Lenar and Williams-Sonoma; IEA Monthly Report
Thursday: US Housing launched; US preliminary claims; Income from Dollar General, FedEx and GameStop; Bank of England rate decision; EU inflation
Friday: current home sales in the US; bank of japan rate decision
