'Where's the beef?' Special master knocks Trump's lack of evidence on document claims
October 18, 2022
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A key indicator of US inflation eased in December as spending dipped, according to government data released Friday, opening the door to smaller interest rate hikes as efforts to cool the economy ripple through sectors.
The Federal Reserve has hiked the benchmark lending rate seven times last year, with an aim to ease demand as inflation surged, while trying to avoid tipping the world's biggest economy into a recession.
And the tightening measures are showing effect, with the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rising 5.0 percent last month from a year ago, down from 5.5 percent in November, Commerce Department data showed on Friday.
This extends a downward trend since mid-2022, when American households found themselves increasingly squeezed by rising costs.
The central bank focuses on the PCE price index as it reflects actual consumer spending, including shifts to less expensive items, unlike the more well-known consumer price index.
The indicator ticked up 0.1 percent from November to December, as prices for goods decreased 0.7 percent and energy costs dropped 5.1 percent, said the report.
But services prices rose from the preceding month.
"The Fed views the job market as the primary battleground in its fight against inflation," said economist Bernard Yaros Jr of Moody's Analytics.
"As long as wage gains in labor-intensive services are robust, the Fed will be loath to declare victory," he added.
Household spending also dipped further 0.2 percent between November and December, the report said, adding that personal incomes rose 0.2 percent.
Analysts believe spending is set to slow further in the coming months.
"The latest data offer among the first tangible signs that the economy's main engine is slowing," said Oren Klachkin of Oxford Economics.
"Looking ahead, a cooling labor market, a depleted savings cushion, and less willingness to rely on credit cards in a high inflation environment will lead consumers to pull back," he added.
For now, consumer sentiment remains low from a historical perspective, according to a University of Michigan survey of consumers also released Friday.
Stripping out the volatile food and energy components, the PCE price index was up 4.4 percent from December 2021, signaling that there remains some way to go before the Fed pauses its aggressive battle to rein in inflation.
While the Fed's preferred inflation measures are moving in the right direction, they "remain well above target," said Economist Rubeela Farooqi of High Frequency Economics.
© Agence France-Presse
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American health authorities proposed a further easing on Friday of AIDS-era restrictions on blood donations by gay and bisexual men.
Under the current policy, gay and bisexual men, even those in monogamous relationships, must abstain from sex for three months to be eligible to donate blood.
The new proposed rules from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would do away with the 90-day requirement in favor of an individual risk assessment.
All blood donors are tested for HIV, but the virus may not always show up right away if someone is taking pre-exposure prophylaxis drugs.
At the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, the FDA imposed a lifetime ban on blood donations by gay men to prevent the spread of the HIV virus through blood products.
That was lifted in 2015, but gay and bisexual men were required to abstain from sexual relations for at least one year to be eligible to donate blood.
That period was reduced in April 2020 to the current three months because of blood shortages during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But it still prevented men in monogamous relationships from donating blood unless they abstained from sex for 90 days.
Under the new guidelines, all prospective blood donors would be asked in a questionnaire whether they had new or multiple sexual partners in the past three months.
Prospective blood donors will be eligible if they have not had anal sex with new or multiple sexual partners in the past three months. Those who have will be deferred for a donation.
The FDA said individuals who have tested positive for HIV or taken medication to treat an HIV infection would continue to be banned from donating blood.
'Important step forward'
"Maintaining a safe and adequate supply of blood and blood products in the US is paramount for the FDA," FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement.
"This proposal for an individual risk assessment, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, will enable us to continue using the best science to do so," Califf said in a statement.
The FDA said the new guidance is in line with similar rules in place in Canada and Britain.
Representative Mark Pocan, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, welcomed the revised FDA guidance.
"This is an important step forward towards ensuring our blood donation guidelines are grounded in science, not stigma against certain communities," Pocan said.
"I look forward to taking a closer look at the proposed guidelines once they are published and working with the FDA to ensure that any unnecessary barriers are removed."
The FDA guidance will be subject to public comment for 60 days after which it will be reviewed and finalized.
© Agence France-Presse
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New York officials and members of the city's Jewish community called Friday for the removal of plaques bearing the name of French Nazi collaborators from Manhattan's celebrated Broadway street.
The granite plaques for Vichy leaders Philippe Petain and Pierre Laval were embedded in the "Canyon of Heroes" sidewalk, New York's answer to Hollywood's "Walk of Fame," in 2004.
The plaques honor participants of ticker-tape parades, which ex-general Petain and former leader Laval took part in in 1931.
Petain was invited to the parade because of his status then as the hero who led the French army to victory at the Battle of Verdun in World War I.
Laval was honored because he was then French prime minister.
The parade took place before they worked for the Nazis during Germany's occupation of France during World War II.
"Removing the plaques is not a whitewashing of history. Rather, it is a refusal to continue to honor two people who made the choice to embody the worst of humanity," said Manhattan borough president Mark Levine.
"Petain and Laval's World War I contributions and ticker-tape parades will continue to exist in historical records, but their names do not need to remain on Broadway alongside true heroes like Nelson Mandela and Covid-19 pandemic essential workers.
"France itself convicted both of treason and has renamed streets that once honored these villains," he added.
The call was made on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"The Holocaust remains one of the darkest periods in history, and we must not honor those who enabled and participated in that atrocity," said Eric Dinowitz, chair of the city council’s Jewish caucus.
Ex-mayor Bill de Blasio had promised to remove the plaques in 2017. Instead, a commission suggested adding some historical context but it never happened.
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