Well, it is finally happening. A report just out this
morning shows that inflation has now reached its lowest level
in more than three years.
Question now is, is this going to translate to lower
prices?
We're breaking down the question this morning with financial analyst
Phil Flynn.
Thanks so much for being here.
Good morning, Brian. It's great to be here and it's
great to have some good news on inflation for a
change.
And Speaking of that good news,
the burning question now is with this new news,
will the Fed actually cut interest rates?
And later that report we just got this morning.
You bet they will, Brian.
In fact, there is the Fed fund futures market that
tries to predict such things is now predicting 100%
chance that the Fed is going to cut rates in
September.
And what's even more, 56%
of the people, 56 1/2 percent of those people believe
it's going to be 1/4 point cut.
The rest of them think it could be more aggressive,
A50 basis point cut. And if that happens,
that can have a big impact on a lot of
things.
It's like your home mortgage and,
and buying a car and you name it.
Lower rates means more economic activity.
Now, Phil, we're running an instable question this morning where
about 90%
of Chicagoans, they don't think that inflation is easy just
yet.
So when can we actually start to see some of
these lower prices and some relief for all these families?
They're right. They, they, they feel it because they're experiencing
it every day,
Brian. But believe it or not,
prices are still going up,
but the rate they're going up is slowing to a
more normal rate.
So you're going to start feeling lower prices and some.
Goods and services almost right away,
other ones, not so much.
But the key thing here is that the pace that
they're increasing by is slowing.
So at least, you know,
concerns have a chance to get ahead of the curve
here a bit.
And Phil, the next issue to tackle is the job
market.
What can we expect the best to do there?
Well, one of the things that we've seen and one
of the reasons why inflation is slowing is because the
jobs market has been slowing.
And that really freaked out the markets last week when
we saw that.
So the Federal Reserve has a very difficult job.
That's why they have to cut rates.
Inflation is now under control.
Now they have to stop the bleeding in the jobs
market That in the industry is known as a soft
landing.
And the Fed is thinking they're going to be able
to pull that off.
And it's going to be very telling here in the
next few weeks to see if they can get that
job done.
Phil, thanks so much for your time this morning.
And the update on the inflation finally coming down a
little bit.
Thank you, Brian. I'm going to celebrate today.
We both will.