What we’re reading (5/19)
“Fed Chair Powell Says Rates May Not Have To Rise As Much As Expected To Curb Inflation” (CNBC). “Powell spoke with markets mostly expecting the Fed at its June meeting to take a break from the series of rate hikes it began in March 2022. However, pricing has been volatile as Fed officials weigh the impact that policy has had and will have on inflation that in the summer of last year was running at a 41-year high. On balance, Powell said inflation is still too high.”
“Markets Continuously Project Lower Rates...Much Lower” (RealClear Markets). “Several serious questions remain yet to be answered in the aftermath of recent bank failures. While politicians wrestle over who might be to blame, they’ll never come up with a useful answer anyway and far more important is what this will all do to a global system already in rough shape. The possibility of at least recession was already high to begin with before anyone came to know the name Silicon Valley Bank.”
“Americans’ Views Of Federal Income Taxes Worsen” (Gallup). “The 60% of Americans who say the amount of federal income tax they pay is too high is up six percentage points from a year ago and 15 points from the recent low measured in 2018 and 2019. Meanwhile, 36% of Americans say their federal income tax payments are “about right,” while 3% say they are ‘too low.’”
“America’s Semiconductor Boom Faces A Challenge: Not Enough Workers” (New York Times). “Semiconductor manufacturers say they will need to attract more workers…to staff the plants that are being built across the United States. America is on the cusp of a semiconductor manufacturing boom, strengthened by billions of dollars that the federal government is funneling into the sector. President Biden had said the funding will create thousands of well-paying jobs, but one question looms large: Will there be enough workers to fill them?”
“Mutual Fund Manager May Not Have Meant To Lose Investors $20 Million, But He’s Going To Jail Anyway” (Dealbreaker). “Give Ofer Abarbanel this much: He understands that the point of mutual fund is to make, and not to lose, money. We know this because he said as much…emotionality notwithstanding, saying he didn’t mean to lose them money while asking for probation and community services doesn’t sound like accepting responsibility for his crime, which was not, after all, losing Mosaic money—which is not, after all and to the great relief of mediocre and worse mutual fund managers everywhere, illegal—but lying to it.”
