Federal Reserve focuses on consumer spending, not global trade

摘要

The U.S. economy continues to grow at a healthy if modest pace, according to Federal Reserve directors speaking Wednesday at the MetCoke World Summit in Nashville. In a city known primarily for heart-tugging harmonies (country music), this assertion must have struck a sour note with those in the coal industry familiar with the spate of recent bankruptcy filings, which has even hit the otherwise resilient metallurgical coal sector. It doesn’t seem that the disconnect will be reconnected in the Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy moves, and the Fed’s view is that larger global trade concerns will have to be resolved first for the U.S. industrial sector to benefit.