Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
The U.S. Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it will "soon" be time to start raising interest rates, a key step in reversing pandemic-era policies that have fuelled hiring and growth but also high inflation.
The Fed is expected to lift its benchmark short-term rate from zero as soon as March, when it also plans to phase out monthly bond purchases that have been intended to anchor longer-term rates.
Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference that these actions will help prevent high inflation from becoming entrenched and that the central bank can manage the process in a way that prolongs economic growth and keeps unemployment low.
"I think there is quite a bit of room to raise interest rates without threatening the labor market," Powell said.
The Fed's rate hikes will make it more expensive, over time, to borrow for a home, car or business. The Fed's intent is to temper economic growth and cool off inflation, which is at a 40-year high and eating into Americans' wage gains and household budgets, without raising unemployment.
"The best thing we can do to support continued labor market gains," Powell said, "is to promote a long expansion, and that will require price stability."
The central bank's latest policy statement follows dizzying gyrations in the stock market as investors have been gripped by fear and uncertainty over just how fast and far the Fed will go to reverse its low-rate policies, which have nurtured the economy and the markets for years.
The broad S&P 500 index fell nearly 10% this month before rebounding slightly Wednesday.
Asked about the stock market's wild volatility, Powell stressed that the Fed's "ultimate focus" is on the "real economy." But he added: "We feel like the communications we have with market participants and the general public are working. Monetary policy works significantly through expectations."
High inflation has become a serious political threat to U.S. President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats, with Republicans pointing to rising prices as one of their principal lines of attack as they look toward the November elections.
Biden said last week that it was "appropriate" for Powell to adjust the Fed's policies. And congressional Republicans have endorsed Powell's plans to raise rates, providing the Fed with rare bipartisan support for tightening credit.
"The risk is for a faster pace of Fed tightening given the stickiness of inflation," said Kathy Bostjancic, an economist at Oxford Economics, a consulting firm. "Chair Powell's hawkish tone reflected the upside risks to inflation."
In the statement it issued Wednesday after its latest policy meeting, the Fed said it "expects it will soon be appropriate" to raise rates. Though the statement didn't specifically mention March, half the Fed's policymakers have expressed a willingness to raise rates by then, including some members who have long favored low rates to support hiring.
The Fed also set out principles it will follow once it decides to reduce its nearly US$9 trillion in bond holdings, a sum that has more than doubled since the pandemic struck nearly two years ago. Some analysts expect the Fed to begin doing so as soon as July, a move that would contribute to tighter credit.
The central bank faces a delicate and even risky balancing act. If the stock market is engulfed by more chaotic declines, economists say, the Fed might decide to delay some of its credit-tightening plans. Modest drops in share prices, though, won't likely affect the Fed's thinking.
Some economists have expressed concern that the Fed is already moving too late to combat high inflation. Others say they worry that the Fed may act too aggressively. They argue that numerous rate hikes could unnecessarily slow hiring. In this view, high prices mostly reflect snarled supply chains that the Fed's rate hikes are powerless to cure.
This week's Fed meeting comes against the backdrop of not only high inflation -- consumer prices have surged 7% in the past year -- but also an economy gripped by another wave of COVID-19 infections.
Powell has acknowledged that he failed to foresee the persistence of high inflation, having long expressed the belief that it would prove temporary.
The inflation spike has broadened to areas beyond those that were affected by supply shortages -- to apartment rents, for example -- which suggests it could endure even after goods and parts flow more freely.
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.