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WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Eight years ago this month Jerome Powell, still in his rookie year as a Federal Reserve governor, surveyed the U.S. job market and declared it was good enough for the central bank to reduce the support for the economy it had rolled out to fight the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis.
FILE PHOTO: Traders work, as a screen shows Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell s news conference on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., October 30, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
The unemployment rate had just hit a post-crisis low of roughly 7.5%. But for Blacks it remained a catastrophic 13%, a fact not raised by Powell or any other policymaker during their meeting.
The labor market could tighten significantly later this year and next year as coronavirus infections are contained and more people return to work, Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Eric Rosengren said on Monday.
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FILE PHOTO: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies before the Senate Banking Committee hearing on The Quarterly CARES Act Report to Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 1, 2020. Susan Walsh/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve is monitoring the implosion of New York fund Archegos Capital and analyzing why some banks suffered billions of dollars in losses, but the incident does not raise broader systemic risk worries, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said.
Archegos, a family office run by ex-Tiger Asia manager Bill Hwang, along with major banks that financed the fund’s trades, lost billions of dollars last month as its leveraged bets on media stocks quickly soured.
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FILE PHOTO: U.S. currency is seen in this picture illustration taken March 6, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar/Illustration/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. government posted a March budget deficit of $660 billion, a record high for the month, as direct payments to Americans under President Joe Biden’s stimulus package were distributed, the Treasury Department said on Monday.
The deficit for the first six months of the 2021 fiscal year ballooned to a record $1.706 trillion, compared to a $743 billion deficit for the comparable year-earlier period.
The COVID-19 pandemic did not have a big impact on the first six months of fiscal 2020, as increased outlays tied to rising unemployment due to pandemic-related lockdowns and major new aid spending did not start until the very end of March 2020 and ramped up in the following month, a Treasury official told reporters.
The U.S. economy is at an "inflection point" with expectations that growth and hiring will pick up speed in the months ahead, but some risks remain, particularly any resurgence in the coronavirus pandemic, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said.