JASON FURMAN

Central banks seek to manage economies by setting interest rates at levels that speed up or slow down things like car purchases and construction projects. But the enterprise revolves around a number that’s far more ephemeral — the rate that does nothing at all, also known as the neutral interest rate. Right now, it’s an important guidepost because most monetary policy makers are trying to set rates high enough to bring down inflation -- but not so high as to guarantee a recession. Another number

Central banks seek to manage economies by setting interest rates at levels that speed up or slow down things like car purchases and construction projects. But the enterprise revolves around a number that’s far more ephemeral — the rate that does nothing at all, also known as the neutral interest rate. Right now, it’s an important guide post because most monetary policy makers are trying to set rates high enough to bring down inflation — but not so high as to guarantee a recession. With the US Fe

Jason Furman, a former Obama economic adviser, thinks Biden’s debt-relief plan helps too many of the wrong people.

Inflation eased last month as energy prices tumbled, according to a report closely watched by the Federal Reserve.

About $400 billion in debt could be forgiven. But some economists say the impact on the economy is likely to be minimal.

With inflation raging near its highest level in four decades, President Joe Biden is poised to sign into law his landmark Inflation Reduction Act Tuesday afternoon.

The Fed's interest rate hikes crushed tech stocks, but the longer-term truth is that an inflationary period for the economy is one in which technology wins.

Only eight days separated the two government reports, yet they seemed to describe entirely different realities. The first showed a weak economy and the second reflected a juggernaut that was minting jobs faster than workers could be found to fill them.

A Democratic economic package focused on climate and health care faces hurdles but seems headed toward party-line passage by Congress next month. Approval would let President Joe Biden and his party claim a triumph on top priorities just as November’s elections approach. Now, a Democratic economic package focused on climate and health care faces hurdles but seems headed toward party-line passage by Congress next month. Approval would let President Joe Biden and his party claim a triumph on top priorities as November's elections approach. By one inflation measure the Federal Reserve studies closely, prices jumped 6.8% in June from a year ago, the biggest increase in four decades.

In a story published July 30, 2022, The Associated Press reported that the Congressional Budget Office estimated that an insulin bill would increase the price of the drug.

White House Senior Advisor Deese addresses the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington White House Senior Advisor Brian Deese addresses the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S. July 26, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstWASHINGTON — For months, the White House has been arguing that it has inflation under control, that rising prices for gasoline, groceries and other goods are painful but temporary. The White House rejects that definition, projecting confidence in the face of a potential recession, even though similar confidence about the prospects of inflation in early 2021 came back to haunt the administration this year. "This would be what I call a 'soft recession,'" says Stephen Moore, a former top Trump administration economist currently at the Heritage Foundation. In a telephone interview with Yahoo News, Moore rejected the harshly anti-Biden narrative proffered by some other concerns, even as he faulted the White House for not doing enough to stop inflation.

The following is a transcript of an interview with economist Jason Furman that aired Sunday, July 17, 2022, on "Face the Nation."

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb and more appear on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" this Sunday.

Recession fears are ticking up this week, after an unexpected pick-up in inflation sent markets tumbling and gave businesses and consumers new reason to pause.

Inflation’s relentless surge didn’t merely persist in June.

Economy Jobs Report FILE - Job applicants fill out forms with CSC Global, left, and Skilled Staffing, right, at the 305 Second Chance Job & Resource Expo, Friday, June 10, 2022, in Miami. Employers added 372,000 jobs in June, a surprisingly robust gain and in line with the pace of the previous two months. Economists had expected job growth to slow sharply last month given the broader signs of economic weakness. For now, numerous sectors of the economy posted strong job gains in June. When the government reports next week on last month's inflation, the figure will likely remain high and might even top the 8.6% year-over-year reading in May.

A strong hiring report for June has assuaged fears that the U.S. economy might be on the cusp of a recession — and highlighted the resilience of the nation’s job market.

Furious about surging prices at the gasoline station and the supermarket, many consumers feel they know just where to cast blame: On greedy companies that relentlessly jack up prices and pocket the profits.

Biden wants Congress to give people a break on the federal gas tax for the summer. But economists say that won't translate into big savings at the pump — and could hurt efforts to curb inflation.

In a pointed back and forth, the head of Chevron has complained that President Joe Biden has vilified energy firms at a time when gasoline prices are at near record levels and the president responded that the oil company CEO was being “mildly sensitive.”.

President Joe Biden came before the television cameras Friday to celebrate yet another month of healthy job growth and low unemployment and the fastest pace of hiring in four decades under his watch.

The pandemic, war and a broken supply chain force world leaders, chief executives and economists to rethink globalization and emphasize resilience.

The following is a transcript of an interview with Jason Furman, former chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, that aired Sunday, May 22, 2022, on "Face the Nation."

The employment report for April indicates that an important driver of rising prices is moderating.

It's been one year since President Joe Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan.

Some are looking to a gas tax holiday to bring relief to consumers faced with skyrocketing prices.

On the brink of imposing sanctions on Russia, the US and Europe have sought to reduce a ripple effect that could destabilize their own economies.

While there are reasons to confirm Biden's Fed nominees, economists say concern that the central bank won't act to rein in inflation shouldn't be among them.

While the Ukraine crisis presents the U.S. with a foreign policy threat, it's also pushing gasoline prices higher at home.

WASHINGTON — (AP) — That bleak jobs report the White House had been bracing for never arrived Friday. “Our country is taking everything that COVID has to throw at us, and we’ve come back stronger," Biden declared at the White House. The jobs report suggested the United States has entered a new phase in its recovery from the pandemic. Harvard University economist Jason Furman, a former adviser in the Obama White House, said the jobs report showed that employers and workers had gotten over the havoc caused by the pandemic. The strong jobs report, however, may give the Federal Reserve reason to raise interest rates and pull back on its support for the economy to reduce inflation.

President Joe Biden and the White House were bracing for bad economic news.

Higher consumer prices in 2021 erased the raises many workers got from their employers. However, wage growth outstripped inflation for some lower earners.

Consumer prices are soaring at their highest annual pace in almost 40 years. Some progressives such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren blame corporate profiteering, but most economists scoff.

With inflation surging, unemployment falling and wages rising, some economists are warning that the Federal Reserve may have waited too long to reverse its ultra-low-rate policies — a delay that could put the economy at heightened risk.

Over the past 12 months, the costs paid by a typical American family have surged by roughly $4,000, according to calculations by Jason Furman.

And economists are now voicing a more discouraging message: Higher prices will likely last well into next year, if not beyond. Consumer price inflation will likely endure as long as companies struggle to keep up with consumers’ prodigious demand for goods and services. That was when higher prices coincided with high unemployment in defiance of what conventional economists thought was possible. The Conference Board, a business research group, found that consumers’ inflation expectations last month were the highest they'd been since July 2008. “So it doesn’t suggest that we’re facing both a tanking of growth and higher inflation.

Americans’ overall income has accelerated since the pandemic, but so has inflation — and a new poll finds that far more people are noticing the higher prices than the pay gains.

Inflation has blossomed into a chief concern for the White House, which has ramped up efforts to remedy supply-chain interruptions.

Will tax cuts for the rich really help Joe Biden’s party in the midterms?

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell surely expected to have some breathing room after taking the first step this month to dial back the Fed’s emergency aid for the economy.

The economist Jason Furman explains why prices are rising and what is at stake for the Administration.

And economists are now voicing a more discouraging message: Higher prices will likely last well into next year, if not beyond. Consumer price inflation will likely endure as long as companies struggle to keep up with consumers’ prodigious demand for goods and services. That was when higher prices coincided with high unemployment in defiance of what conventional economists thought was possible. The Conference Board, a business research group, found that consumers’ inflation expectations last month were the highest they'd been since July 2008. “So it doesn’t suggest that we’re facing both a tanking of growth and higher inflation.

In a new executive order, President Biden aims to kickstart competition for consumers, workers and farmers in ways both big and small, starting with a list of 72 initiatives.

Insider Q&A Furman Inflation FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2016 file photo, Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman speaks during the daily briefing in the South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington. But if we want to operate the economy, year in and year out, at a higher inflation rate going forward, I don’t see that as a problem. And finally, and most speculatively, expectations for inflation play a big role in the dynamics of inflation. But I think they’re going to surprise themselves that they’re going to end up with a very strong recovery in jobs, that we’re going to end up with more inflation than we expect. And so they’re going to raise rates sooner than they think they’re going to.

Two months of sharply rising prices have raised concerns that record-high government financial aid and the Federal Reserve’s ultra-low interest rate policies — when the economy is already surging — have elevated the risk of accelerating inflation.

The White House believes it has an ally in the bond markets to make the case that inflation isn't an economic threat. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File) (Frank Franklin II)The White House believes it has an ally in the bond markets to make the case that inflation isn't an economic threat. The White House points to charts that dig into two key market-based measures of inflation and show no cause for alarm in the medium to long term. The uncertainty has been magnified for voters as Republican lawmakers say that inflation will devastate the economy and Democrats counter that rising prices are temporary. Harvard University professor Jason Furman, who served as chief economist for the Obama White House, noted that there are arguments for and against rising inflation.

The White House believes it has an ally in the bond markets to make the case that inflation isn’t an economic threat.

President Joe Biden is portraying the May jobs report as a jumping off point for more spending on infrastructure and education.

About three-quarters of all unemployment beneficiaries — nearly 12 million people — are receiving aid through one of those federal programs. One of them provides payments to the self-employed and gig workers, who had never been eligible for jobless aid before. Collectively, those cutoffs of aid coincide with a steady decline in the number of people applying for jobless benefits. Now, more people — and a higher proportion of the jobless — are receiving unemployment aid than in any past recovery, according to data that extends to the late 1960s. Now, more Americans are actually receiving jobless benefits that are officially counted as unemployed, though that reflects quirks in the data.

Far more Americans are receiving unemployment benefits than the last time the jobless rate was at the current 6.1%, thanks to a major expansion of the federal safety net that has provided aid to millions of people out of work.

Damon Weaver was an 11-year-old fifth-grader in 2009 when he asked President Barack Obama whether he'd improve school lunches.

Americans are experiencing flickers of optimism at the one-year anniversary of the deadly outbreak as more people are vaccinated. But new strains of the virus and a still shaky economy could unleash another devastating cycle of infections, lockdowns and deaths. Biden and Democrats warn that now is not the time to let up on aid, and that it's better to risk doing too much than too little. McConnell expressed similar optimism last spring when he hit “pause” on new spending after approval of the initial round of aid. GOP Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana said by the time they're done they hope to turn public opinion around.

AdIt’s a tested strategy but comes at an uncertain, volatile time for the nation. Americans are experiencing flickers of optimism at the one-year anniversary of the deadly outbreak as more people are vaccinated. But new strains of the virus and a still shaky economy could unleash another devastating cycle of infections, lockdowns and deaths. Biden and the Democrats backing him warn that now is not the time to let up on aid — better to risk doing too much, than too little. GOP Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana said by the time they're done they hope to turn public opinion around.

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)BALTIMORE – When Joe Biden entered the White House as vice president, the economy was cratering. Biden returns to the White House as president a dozen years later with the economy battered and shaken by a pandemic. The investment bank Goldman Sachs estimates that growth this year could be 6.6% if part of Biden's stimulus plan passes. That would be the strongest gain since 1984, when a 7.2% increase in the gross domestic product helped carry Republican President Ronald Reagan to a second term in a landslide. For now, the Biden team is hoping to push through its stimulus with Republican support in the Senate.

The U.S. economy added only 245,000 jobs in November, a number that was lower than the 440,000 expected. Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP Research Institute, breaks down underlying factors in the unemployment rate. "The one thing that we haven't heard is the labor force participation rate. I think that's going to be critical in understanding the edge down in the unemployment rate. I think that's a very wrong way to interpret these numbers.

LONDON – Britain plans to create a new watchdog to police big tech companies including Google and Facebook to counter their market dominance and prevent them from exploiting consumers and small businesses. The Digital Markets Unit, scheduled to launch in April, will oversee a new regulatory regime for tech companies that's aimed at spurring more competition. In the U.S., authorities are pursuing an antitrust case against Google and lawmakers have proposed breaking up big tech companies. The government still needs to consult on how the digital markets unit will operate and approve legislation for it. Under the new code, tech companies would have to be more transparent about how they use consumers’ data.

On today's show, CNBC's Ylan Mui breaks down a new letter from more than 100 economists begging Congress to send out another round of direct checks to the American people. Economists are calling for more stimulus checks. Here's where assistance plans standFor Americans who have had a tough year financially amid Covid-19, a second set of $1,200 stimulus checks would provide some much welcome relief. But lawmakers on Capitol Hill still need to work out their differences before they can approve another coronavirus stimulus package that will trigger those payments. "It's really too soon to tell how deep and how long there may be a depressed environment but we've seen some weakening of bookings."

Congress is past the point at which it can deliver more coronavirus aid soon, with differences between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump proving insurmountable. said Senate GOP Whip John Thune of South Dakota. The Pelosi-Mnuchin talks also involve pandemic jobless aid, the second round of $1,200 direct payments, and money for schools, testing and vaccines. Senate Republicans are recoiling at both the size of the measure and Pelosi's demands, even as Trump is beating the drums for an agreement. But the Senate GOP bill has failed once before, and Trump himself says it's too puny.

She said the two sides would take stock on Tuesday, which she has staked out as the deadline if a deal is to be reached before the election. Pelosi is angling for the best deal she can get — maybe that’s now, maybe it’s later. And if history is any guide, prospects for a deal in the lame-duck session after the election could be dim. But the Senate GOP bill has failed once before, and Trump himself says it's too puny. For months she has been promising a COVID relief package of more than $2 trillion stuffed with Obama-era stimulus ideas.

The economy is in terrible shape and improving rapidly, said Harvard University professor Jason Furman, formerly the top economist in the Obama White House. Overall, 63% of the country says the economy is in poor shape, down somewhat from the 70% who felt that way in May. The change was driven by increasingly optimistic Republicans, only 43% of whom described the economy as good a month ago. Forty-two percent of white Americans say the same. Thirty-four percent of Hispanics, 29% of African Americans and 20% of white Americans said someone in their household has been laid off.

Paul Winfree, a former Trump White House director of budget policy, doubted that the holdup on the economic update was on Trump's radar. Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, noted that the law requires the White House to update its budget forecast. In 2017, the Trump administration criticized the Obama administration for rosy expectations of growth during the Great Recession more than a decade ago. An updated forecast in the mid-session review could make the Trump White House a similar target for criticism. This is a White House that is in denial about the trajectory of the economy.___Associated Press writers Alexandra Jaffe and Emily Swanson in Washington contributed to this report.

U.S. weekly jobs claims rose by 4.4 million last week, bringing the total number to about 26 million since the coronavirus pandemic began. "We want the program to work and I think that sadly what we're seeing is that the program is working quite well. "Twenty-six million [jobless claims] and counting and yet markets since the release of that data continue to digest them well, showing you that news was already anticipated. They're always looking out, they're bending the curve they're looking for all those things, perhaps better treatment, or eventually a vaccine, and so they are going to price themselves. I don't think that's going to happen but that would change my mind and I'm flexible.