John Carney

1 day ago | breitbart.com | John Carney

Gross domestic product declined at an annual rate of 0.5 percent in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said Thursday, marking the economy’s first contraction since early 2023. The figure was revised down from the previous estimate of a 0.2 percent decline and stood in sharp contrast to the 2.4 percent growth recorded in the fourth quarter of last year.

1 day ago | breitbart.com | John Carney

Orders for long-lasting manufactured goods increased 16.4 percent from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted $343.6 billion, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected a 7 percent increase. Much of the gain came from a 230.8 percent jump in orders for nondefense aircraft, a volatile category that often drives large monthly swings.

2 days ago | hotair.com | John Carney

The Fed chair once warned against using speculative forecasts to drive policy. Now he’s doing exactly that. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell made a quiet but extraordinary admission on Tuesday: if the Fed were following the actual data, it would be cutting interest rates. But it isn’t—because the Fed expects President Trump’s tariffs to raise inflation, and it's choosing to act on that forecast instead.

2 days ago | breitbart.com | John Carney

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell made headlines last week when he warned that new tariffs could push prices higher, remarking: “Everyone I know is forecasting a meaningful increase on prices from tariffs because someone has to pay for the tariffs.”That may be true of Powell’s circle, but it’s not true of the data. And if Powell is drawing his view from the latest Federal Reserve research, he may be misled by a model that appears far more rigorous than it really is.

2 days ago | breitbart.com | John Carney

Purchases of new single-family homes fell 13.7 percent from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 623,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. It was the largest monthly decline since the summer of 2021 and came in well below economists’ expectations. The steep pullback signals persistent weakness in the housing market, where elevated financing costs have eroded purchasing power despite price incentives and mortgage-rate buydowns offered by builders.