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A wave of inflationary signals means that the Federal Reserve's next move could be a rate hike, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said. "There's a meaningful chance, maybe it's 15%, that the next move is going to be upwards in rates, not downwards," Summers said during an interview on Bloomberg TV on Friday, adding that the Fed has to be "very careful." His read on recent key inflation indicators in January, including a 3.1% year-over-year increase in the consumer price index and a 0.9% rise in the producer price index, formed the basis of his rationale. He added that the...

DENVER — Xcel Energy customers are sweating the possibility of another rate hike. They're making their opposition known to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) as the agency considers a $45 million electric rate increase. “They make more than enough money. They don’t need to gouge their customers any further,” said Loren Meaux, an Xcel customer, in a public comment hearing Tuesday. Xcel originally filed for a $312 million increase to pay for investments in transmission projects and its commitment to meet Colorado greenhouse gas emissions goals. After negotiations with state regulators and consumer advocates, the company dropped the increase to...

"I’ve been warning that Chair Powell’s Fed would throw millions of Americans out of work — and I fear he’s already on the path to doing so,” Warren, a member of the Senate Committee on Finance, wrote on Twitter following Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s announcement regarding the benchmark interest rate hike. Earlier Wednesday, Powell said he would boost the rate by 75 basis points for the third consecutive month as part of an effort to combat red-hot inflation... “We have both the tools we need and the resolve that it will take to restore price stability on behalf of...

This is the biggest increase in 27 years.

The UK economy will be plunged into recession for more than a year this autumn as rising energy prices push inflation above 13%, the Bank of England has warned. In a bleak outlook for consumers and business, the bank forecast five quarters of economic contraction and a 5% fall in real-terms living standards, and increased interest rates by 0.5 percentage points, the largest single rise in 27 years. The bank's baseline forecast is for GDP to fall by 1.25% in 2023 and 0.25% in 2024, the first instance of two years of annual economic contraction since the 1960s.

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point on Wednesday, its biggest move since 1994, as the central bank ramps up its efforts to tackle the fastest inflation in four decades. The big rate increase, which markets had expected, underlined that Fed officials are serious about crushing price increases even if it comes at a cost to the economy.

LANSING, Wis. (WMTV) - Millions of people in Michigan could see a big hike in their electric bill this summertime afternoons. With the summer months heating up, one of the largest utility companies in the state plans to increase drastically the cost of electricity, starting Tuesday. From then until September 30, Consumers Energy will charge its customers a 50 percent higher rate between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays. According to the company’s website, it has more than 6.5 million customers in Michigan. When announcing the rate spike, Consumers’ spokesperson Brian Wheeler explained the move is intended...

Jerry Powell apparently doesn’t get it. The new head of the Federal Reserve isn’t supposed to imply that he doesn’t work for Wall Street. And he’s not supposed to say, as he did the other day in front of Congress, that “we don’t manage the stock market — we manage stable prices and maximum employment.” That’s not what Wall Street and the stock market want to hear. And that was proven by the fact that the stock market dropped sharply on Tuesday when Powell was speaking. And Powell’s comments were one of the reasons Wall Street’s pros couldn’t get a...

HARRISBURG, PA (Jan. 4, 2018) —The PA Turnpike Commission (PTC) today reminded motorists that beginning 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 7 tolls will reflect a six-percent increase for both cash and E-ZPass customers. The toll increase, approved by commissioners last July, is needed to meet the PTC’s funding and capital-improvement obligations. Additionally, the PTC is legislatively mandated to offer $450 million in supplemental funding to PennDOT each year under Act 44 of 2007. Since Act 44 was passed, the PTC has provided payments to PennDOT totaling $5.875 billion. Of that amount, $3.625 billion has provided financial assistance to the commonwealth’s mass-transit...

Big Upstate manufacturers stand ready to challenge Duke Energy if the Charlotte-based power company asks South Carolina regulators for permission to raise rates on its Upstate customers. Duke announced Aug. 25 that it planned to cancel decade-old plans to build the two-reactor Gaffney plant. Scott Elliott, a Columbia lawyer who specializes in utility regulation, has already picked out arguments he intends to make on behalf of manufacturing clients in opposition to the expected rate hike request. Elliott represents the S.C. Energy Users Committee, a group of manufacturers that buy a lot of electricity. The group includes big Upstate employers such...

"While it may not be the very definition of irony, we do find the fact that the Atlanta Fed has just cut its Q1 GDP forecast from 1.2% to 0.9%, a number which if confirmed would be the lowest quarterly print in year, just two hours before the Fed's rate hike quite humorous. As a reminder, the number was as high as 3.4% one and a half months ago."

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell to near a 44-year low last week, pointing to further tightening of the labor market even as economic growth appears to have remained moderate in the first quarter.

On Monday republican presidential candidate Donald Trump fired political shots at the Federal Reserve saying, “she is keeping them artificially low to get Obama retired,” while referring to the interest rate policy the Fed has taken under the leadership of Janet Yellen.

While most U.S. data has been relatively upbeat, retail sales rose less than expected in October, suggesting a slowdown in consumer spending that could temper expectations of a strong pickup in fourth-quarter economic growth. In the meantime, Britain's Bank of England was once pegged as likely to be the first major central bank to tighten policy but prices fell again last month, data will probably show on Tuesday. With inflation so far below its 2 percent target the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee won't be raising its benchmark rate from a record low 0.5 percent until at least April, a Reuters...

The postmaster general says the Postal Service has no choice but to ask for an emergency rate hike given the agency’s dire finances. … The post office expects to lose $6 billion this year. It wants to raise stamp prices by 3 cents next year. …

If you like your ridiculously high cell phone bill, there’s good news: President Obama wants to make it even higher! The president is pushing a plan to raise money by hiking cell phone fees and use the revenue generated to wire up local schools with high-speed Internet access. The idea of allowing states and towns to figure out how to pay for their own Internet access is evidently anathema to this administration, as is the idea that government should stay within its constitutional boundaries. He’s also planning to do this without input from Congress, via the Federal Communications Commission, according...

Battered by massive losses, the Postal Service wants to raise rates to bring in more money. Postal officials scheduled a briefing Tuesday to discuss the amount of the increase, which will go to the independent Postal Regulatory Commission for review. The boost comes as no surprise. Postmaster General John Potter said March 2 that a rate increase would be necessary for the agency, which does not receive tax funds for its operations. The current 44-cent first-class rate took effect May 11, 2009. While that change will be the most visible, rates for other types of mail will also go...

The Bank of Canada today announced that it was raising its overnight lending rate by 25 basis points to 50 basis points. The doubling of the price of money is the first hike in North American by a central bank since the Great Recession ended. The bank explained: The economy grew by a robust 6.1 per cent in the first quarter, led by housing and consumer spending. Employment growth has resumed. Going forward, household spending is expected to decelerate to a pace more consistent with income growth. The anticipated pickup in business investment will be important for a more balanced...

Australia’s central bank kept interest rates on hold today in a move that confounded economists and send the country's currency tumbling. The decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia to keep its benchmark interest rate at 3.75pc comes after three consecutive increases by the bank. All of Sydney's top economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected an increase to 4pc, as had financial markets. Glenn Stevens, the head of the Reserve Bank, said interest rates were kept on hold because information about the impact on the economy of earlier rises is "still limited." Australia was the first country in the...

A state advisory board today recommended a 24.4 percent rate increase for workers' compensation insurance effective July 1, ignoring Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plea that a rate hike that big would overwhelm California businesses. The governing board of the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau approved the recommended rate increase during a morning meeting in San Francisco. WCIRB officials citing rising medical treatment costs -- not the number of accidents -- and other potential changes resulting from recent workers compensation appeals rulings. The bureau will now deliver its recommendations to state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who is free to accept or reject...