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The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates for the first time since March 2020 — the beginning stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Forbes reported that on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, the U.S. central banking system announced the significant move that will have a widespread effect on Americans’ finances, making borrowing less expensive. Following a split decision on whether to make a 25- or 50-basis-point cut, the Fed’s policy-setting committee reduced the federal funds rate by 50 basis points. As inflation continues to moderate, the adjustment lowers the interest rate to a range of 4.75% to 5%, down from 5.25% to 5.5%, which were the highest levels since 2001. “Today, the Federal Open Market Committee decided to reduce the degree of policy restraint by lowering our policy interest rate by 1/2 percentage point,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at a news conference following the announcement. “ This decision reflects our growing confidence that, with an appropriate recalibration of our...
You may have heard of inflation, but what about ‘shrinkflation’? If it’s not one thing it’s another. This time it’s a phenomenon called ‘shrinkflation’ where consumers pay the same price for less when it comes to buying goods. According to CBS News , this is not a new trick, this practice plays a role during periods of rising inflation or economic downturns. One of the results of the COVID-19 pandemic placed cost pressures on a number of industries along with their products thanks to various reasons which include difficulty in hiring workers, trucking shortages, and price increases for raw materials. “If you are a manufacturer or retailer, you have a couple of choices — you can keep prices the same, which means you have lower margins. Second, you can run fewer promotions, and that definitely happened in the last year,” said Anne-Marie Roerink, the founder of market research firm 210 Analytics. “And the third measure is to keep prices the same but have a little less in the box.”...