The daily business briefing: June 23, 2021

Fed chair says the recent inflation spike is probably temporary, existing-home prices jumped to a record in May, and more

Jerome Powell
(Image credit: GRAEME JENNINGS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

1. Fed chair says inflation spike likely temporary

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday that spiking inflation was likely to be temporary. Powell was responding to Republicans in Congress who blamed rising prices on President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which lawmakers approved in March. Powell sidestepped the partisan clash over spending aimed at speeding the recovery from economic damage caused by the pandemic, but said that recent larger-than-expected increases in consumer prices were mostly due to supply bottlenecks that occurred when demand surged after the economy quickly reopened as coronavirus infections and deaths fell, and businesses from airlines to used car lots couldn't restart operations fast enough to keep up.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.