Month: December 2021

By: Ke Tang OverviewInflation in October is rising more than expected. According to the US Bureau of LaborStatistics, the consumer price index in October has increased 0.9% and pushed the year-over-year increase to 6.2%, hitting a 30-year high. In comparison, the consumer price index inSeptember has risen 0.4% on the month and 5.4% on the year. 1 The rise of inflation exceedspeople's expectations and will increase people’s costs for living. However, it is not necessarilythat inflation will influence everyone equally. Depending on an individual’s consumption basket,the impact on one’s cost of living will be different because different products have experiencedvarious levels of inflation. Furthermore, those in the lower-income status will be influenced themost as they are most vulnerable...

By: Marvi Ali The Federal Reserve System, or the Fed, is the central bank and monetary authority of theUnited States. Founded in the aftermaths of the Panic of 1907 and a series of financial crises, theFed was tasked with the major responsibilities of conducting national monetary policy,supervising and regulating the banking system, and ensuring financial stability. There are threemain components of the Fed: the Regional Banks, the Board of Governors, and the Federal OpenMarket Committee. One of the seven governors from the Board of Governors is appointed as theChairman of the Fed by the President of the United States and then confirmed by the US Senate.The Fed Chair serves as a spokesperson and representative for the rest of the Board and chairsboth the Board of Governors and the Fede...

By: Mi Nguyen It has been almost two years since the COVID-19 virus was detected and the world is going deepinto quarantine and isolation to battle the immense spread of the virus. By this point, wearingmasks indoors and showing vaccination cards at restaurants has become the new normal already.As we become so used to living with the virus, we tend to forget that COVID-19 is still there,and it still has a huge impact on our current economy. Examining the report from S&P Global Ratings, we can see that although the economy is slowlyrecovering from the initial impact of COVID-19, the road to full pre-pandemic recovery is stillshaky due to surges of COVID cases in different countries along with new variants beingdiscovered. For instance, in the US, although key emerging markets, li...