What we’re reading (9/14)
“‘Worst Kind Of Setup For The Fed’: What Wall Street Is Saying About The Central Bank’s Next Rate Decision” (Yahoo! Finance). “Weak labor market data overshadowed a sticky inflation print last week, keeping investor expectations intact that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its policy meeting on Wednesday.”
“Exclusive: Fed Governor Cook Declared Her Atlanta Property As “Vacation Home,” Documents Show” (Reuters). “A loan estimate for an Atlanta home purchased by Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor accused of mortgage fraud by the Trump administration, shows that Cook had declared the property as a ‘vacation home,’ according to a document reviewed by Reuters. The document, dated May 28, 2021, was issued to Cook by her credit union in the weeks before she completed the purchase and shows that she had told the lender that the Atlanta property wouldn’t be her primary residence. The document appears to counter other documentation that Cook’s critics have cited in support of their claims that she committed mortgage fraud by reporting two different homes as her primary residence, two independent real-estate experts said.”
“The Coming Electricity Crisis” (Foreign Affairs). “The surge in electricity demand is not inherently a problem. It reflects the technology-fueled progress that electrification can deliver. But rising demand is already starting to drive up electricity prices and push the grid to its limits. Without rapid action, consumers will pay more, businesses will be less competitive, and the country will risk losing its lead in technological innovation and advanced manufacturing.”
“The US Is Unlikely To Drop Into Recession” (Joachim Klement). “[T]he US is unlikely to drop into recession in 2025 or even 2026. A new study by the Boston Fed shows one key reason why this may be so. They wanted to find out why consumer spending has not slowed in the aftermath of the 2022 inflation spike and rising interest rates. They show that low-income households did indeed feel the pinch from the higher cost of living. Lacking any meaningful savings, they made up for the shortfall by using buy-now-pay-later schemes and – more commonly – racking up credit card debt. High-income households, meanwhile, kept on spending at almost unchanged growth rates thanks to excess savings from the pandemic years and low credit card balances overall. These high-income households masked an overall deterioration in consumer spending and prevented the US from dropping into a recession in 2022 or 2023.”
“The World’s Surprise Boomtown: Baghdad” (The Economist). “Cranes sprout above the Baghdad skyline. The shriek of electric saws echoes across the city. Under the heavy summer sun, workers lay a new pavement outside a chic fromagerie. Baghdad is enjoying a construction boom. Iraq looks remarkably stable—and that is drawing foreign investors and reshaping its capital.”
