Investors and policymakers increasingly rely on verbal guidance rather than policy moves. This column examines whether the emotional sentiment of the chair of the Federal Reserve’s voice in press conferences affects the probability of a sudden, significant drop in bank stock prices. A more positive vocal tone by the Fed chair reduces the risk of […]
“How’s your garden?” This was a common question I often heard in Gulu, Uganda. Especially at the start of the country’s two rainy seasons—one beginning in March and the other in September—women frequently exchanged this phrase in markets, hair salons, and even non-profit offices. In Gulu, a garden was not merely an aesthetic feature of […]
Central banks use communication to influence inflation expectations, with varying effectiveness. This column examines how professional forecasters and households respond to inflationary pressure warnings in the US. While professionals factor in the Federal Reserve’s policy response, revising expectations downwards, households place less weight on the central bank’s response to inflationary pressures. As a result, their […]
Nvidia plans to sell a technology that will tie chips together to speed up the chip-to-chip communication needed to build and deploy artificial intelligence tools, it said on Monday. Nvidia launched a new version of its NVLink tech called NVLink Fusion on Monday that it will sell to other chip designers to help build powerful custom […]
Global hunger and malnutrition are rising again after decades of progress. In 2024, 343 million people across 74 countries faced acute food insecurity—driven by the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts, and economic shocks. In addition, food supply disruptions at local and global levels have become more frequent and severe. Since the 2007–08 global […]
Since mid-2021, the euro-area economy has gone through several shocks, leading to the highest inflation since the creation of the European Monetary Union. A forceful and persistent response from the European Central Bank, grounded in the monetary policy framework it agreed in 2021 ahead of the inflationary episode, has succeeded in bringing inflation down and […]
