High US inflation ‘not acceptable’ but recovery on track: Yellen to AFP
Soaring US inflation rates are “not acceptable” but the health of the world’s largest economy is fundamentally sound thanks to policies that have mitigated the impact of the pandemic, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told AFP.
Yellen conceded in an interview she is “concerned” about inflation running at its highest level in decades, and warned of further “global fallout” if the West moves ahead with punishing sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck, report finds
- Wages are rising but it’s not enough to keep up with the increased cost of living.
- Nearly two-thirds of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck, according to one recent report.
Mortgage rates soar to levels not seen in nearly three years
According to the latest data released Thursday by Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate average spiked to 3.92 percent with an average 0.8 point. (A point is a fee paid to a lender equal to 1 percent of the loan amount. It is in addition to the interest rate.) It was 3.69 percent a week ago and 2.81 percent a year ago. The 30-year fixed rate, which started the year at 3.22 percent, has risen 70 basis points in six weeks. (A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.)
Freddie Mac, the federally chartered mortgage investor, aggregates rates from around 80 lenders across the country to come up with weekly national averages. The survey is based on home purchase mortgages. Rates for refinances may be different. It uses rates for high-quality borrowers with strong credit scores and large down payments. Because of the criteria, these rates are not available to every borrower.
Is the economy really that bad? Why inflation has the middle class so on edge
At first, it was just a few things in the meat and produce sections that caught Gayle Stafford’s eye. But soon she noticed that prices were rising for soup and cereal. And it wasn’t just in the supermarket.
With overall inflation now running at a 40-year high of 7.5%, Stafford, a schoolteacher who lives outside Cincinnati, suddenly finds herself worrying about the family’s financial future, especially for her two adult kids.
“How are they going to be able to afford anything?” she asks, worried that surging inflation could price them out of the market for a house or other staples of the middle-class American dream.
Fed’s Bullard says inflation ‘could get out of control,’ so action is needed now
- St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard cautioned that without action on interest rates, inflation could become an even more serious problem.
- “We’re at more risk now than we’ve been in a generation that this could get out of control,” he said during a panel talk at Columbia University.
- Bullard has called for a full percentage point in rate hikes by July.