Ragnar
<--- Pic is not me
FT.com / US / Economy & Fed - Fed set to downgrade outlook for US
Hot Air Rasmussen: Consumer confidence hits year-long low
The Federal Reserve is set to downgrade its assessment of US economic prospects when it meets on Tuesday to discuss ways to reboot the flagging recovery.
Faced with weak economic data and rising fears of a double-dip recession, the Federal Open Market Committee is likely to ensure its policy is not constraining growth and to use its statement to signal greater concern about the economy. It is, however, unlikely to agree big new steps to boost growth.
The latest poor reading came in Fridays monthly employment report, which showed the US private sector creating only 71,000 jobs in July not enough to keep up with population growth, let alone bring down the unemployment rate. That followed news a week earlier that growth in US gross domestic product slowed from an annualised rate of 3.7 per cent in the first quarter to 2.4 per cent in the second quarter.
Given how low inflation already is, and given the potential for the recovery to falter, we expect Fed officials will highlight downside risks and signal a bias to ease in the FOMC statement, said Jim OSullivan, chief economist at MF Global.
Hot Air Rasmussen: Consumer confidence hits year-long low
Both the consumer and investor indices are now lower than the same time last year. At 70, the consumer index is down six points from last years 76.4, while the investor index is down 2.7 points from last years 80.2 to 77.5. The employment index isnt as bad, at 68.7 from last years 57.8, but still down from Junes 73.8.
Its not Recovery Summer at all, but instead the dawning realization by Americans that all the Obama administration has in its playbook is gimmicks and spin really expensive gimmicks and spin.