WHY THE FED IS KEEPING ITS COOL THIS SUMMER

摘要

The key question in the minds of economists, market players, and policymakers at the Federal Reserve is: How much is the economy slowing down? The answer is crucial to the outlooks for both inflation and interest rates. So far in the third quarter, the only thing that's clear is that growth is not matching the second quarter's robust 4.2% clip. In fact, that pace might well be revised upward, based on a sharp narrowing in the June trade deficit. A wider trade gap for the quarter still sapped second-quarter growth, but not by as much as the Commerce Dept. first estimated.