Feds

Federal Reserve officials have spent the past two months getting investors acclimatized to their plans to slow economic growth and combat inflation by raising interest rates in half-percentage-point increments until price pressures cool.This coming week’s policy meeting will show whether officials are still comfortable with that approach in light of reports Friday that inflation sizzled in May, hitting a new 40-year high, and that consumers’ longer-term inflation expectations rose to a new 14-year high. The survey measure…

On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced that a group of darkweb domains, collectively known as the SSNDOB Marketplace, had been taken offline. The websites were reportedly used to sell data like individuals’ names, Social Security numbers, and birthdates—predominately targeting those in the U.S.About 24 million people from the U.S. had their info listed on the sites, and more than $19 million in revenue was generated by related sales, said the Department of Justice in its press statement. A separate analysis by the…

The Federal Reserve appears to be moving toward a more precise understanding of just how potent the bond buying part of its monetary policy regime is. And based on a new Fed paper and comments by some officials, the effect of the purchases is pretty modest relative to what the central bank can accomplish by changing its federal-funds interest rate target. The Federal Reserve appears to be moving toward a more precise understanding of just how potent the bond buying part of its monetary…

Photo: ARMEND NIMANI/AFP (Getty Images)Investing in Web3, the supposedly “transformative” environment of blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies, continues to be a revolutionary new way to lose a whole lot of money. A study from the Federal Trade Commission released Friday shows that Americans have lost over $1 billion to crypto-related scams since January 2021. In raw numbers, that’s over 46,000 people who say they have been ripped off—usually with the promise of a fake “investment opportunity” in some sort of…

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York official responsible for managing the central bank’s balance sheet says private digital money could have notable effects on how monetary policy is implemented and could lead to greater variability in the size of central bank balance sheets. Speaking Thursday, Lorie Logan, who is currently the manager of the Fed’s $9 trillion System Open Market Account and will become this summer president of the Dallas Fed, took stock of how things like cryptocurrencies, including…

"NFTs might be new, but this type of criminal scheme is not."OpenSeasonA former executive from one of the largest NFT marketplaces has been charged with insider trading and money laundering over allegations that he exploited privileged information for personal gain.In a statement announcing the indictment, the Department of Justice alleged that former OpenSea exec Nathaniel Chastain put a crypto spin on an age-old insider trading scheme.Basically, they said, he'd buy up dozens of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that he knew…

Federal Reserve Vice Chairwoman Lael Brainard said she expected it would be appropriate for the central bank to raise interest rates by a half percentage point at its meeting later this month and again in July but said it was too soon to say whether the Fed might slow the pace of rate rises after that.Ms. Brainard said that it was premature to conclude that inflation had peaked and that the next several months of data on price pressures and economic activity would be important in determining…

The Cleveland Fed district reported a large grocery chain said customers are taking aggressive steps to save. Photo: nicholas kamm/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images…

WASHINGTON—President Biden will meet with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday to discuss the state of the U.S. and global economy, the White House said late Sunday, as the central bank races to withdraw stimulus amid the worst inflation in 40 years.Mr. Biden selected Mr. Powell to serve a second four-year term leading the central bank in November, and Mr. Powell won Senate confirmation on May 12. WASHINGTON—President Biden will meet with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powellon Tuesday to discuss the…

Inflation decelerated slightly in April, measured by the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge, though it remained near its fastest pace since 1982.Consumer prices rose 6.3% in April from a year earlier, down from 6.6% in March, as measured by the Commerce Department’s personal-consumption expenditures price index, which it reported Friday. The March rise was the fastest since January 1982. April’s reading was the first time the measure eased since late 2020. The so-called core PCE index—which excludes volatile food and…