A ‘We Want You!’ sign is posted at an Ike’s Love & Sandwiches store in Los Angeles, Calif. | Mario Tama/Getty Images
POWELL’S PREDICAMENT — Strap in for a pivotal week in the complicated and high-risk life of the American economy. On Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m., we get the latest numbers on the consumer price index, offering a level-check on just how much 40-year high inflation is really going down (probably a bit, but not much).
Then, on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is expected to announce that the central bank is easing up (just a touch) on the size and pace of its rate-hiking campaign aimed at slowing the economy and thus inflation.
Powell faces an almost impossibly tricky communications predicament. He must signal a somewhat lighter approach on rate hikes because Wall Street expects it and some economic signals are showing early signs of…
