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The Latest on the Economy
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P&G Earnings Show Some Consumers Are Getting Used to Higher Prices
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Higher prices for household items aren’t the turnoff that they used to be. Procter & Gamble said that while pricing is largely fueling sales growth, shoppers stepped up the volume of items purchased across several categories such as hair and family care. Analysts are watching P&G and its peers to determine whether they will be able to maintain pricing levels as inflation cools. For some food and snack companies, the volume of purchases has slowed, and they are starting to cut prices on some items, Natasha Khan reports.
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Former Fed President: Central Bank Will Cut Rates Before Inflation Hits 2%
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Former St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said he expects the Federal Reserve to begin lowering interest rates before inflation hits 2%, and that cuts could come as soon as March. Bullard predicts that the core inflation rate, which excludes food and energy prices, will slow to around 2% before October. The headline personal-consumption expenditures price index fell to 2.6% in November 2023 from a year earlier. The next report will be published on Friday, Dion Rabouin reports.
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China to Cut Banks’ Reserve Ratio to Shore Up Growth
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China’s central bank announced new steps to boost bank lending to households and businesses, an early move in what is expected to be a broad but restrained campaign by authorities to prop up growth this year after a lackluster 2023. The cut to banks’ reserve requirements—announced unexpectedly by People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng during a press conference on Wednesday—sends a new signal that officials are eager to curb a stock-market selloff, while also stepping up support for the broader economy, Jason Douglas reports.
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He Hunted Corrupt Chinese Officials. Now He’s Set to Be Foreign Minister. (Read)
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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of State Labor Markets in 2023
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The U.S. labor market still looks fairly solid–but it’s much more of a mixed bag at the state level. In December, 18 states and the District of Columbia had higher unemployment rates than they did a year earlier, while 15 states saw declines. The rest were unchanged. North Dakota closed out the year with its lowest unemployment rate on record, at 1.9%, while jobless rates in Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Maryland were just barely above their record lows. Things were far less pretty in California and D.C., where the jobless rate leapt to 5.1%. Labor-force growth also diverged sharply, Gwynn Guilford reports.
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EBay to Cut Staff by 9%, Citing More Competition (Read)
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Wayfair Layoffs Focused on Remote Workers (Read)
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Union Membership Rate Hit Fresh Low
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Unions made a splash last year, using work stoppages and strike threats to win better pay and new concessions from Detroit automakers, airlines, package couriers, casinos, Hollywood studios and elsewhere. They didn't make much headway expanding their ranks. The share of U.S. workers who belong to unions fell to 10% in 2023 from 10.1% a year earlier, the Labor Department said Tuesday, a fresh low for data reaching back to 1983. The private sector held steady at 6%, while government slipped to 32.5% from 33.1%.
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"Union organizing gains continue to be offset by job growth in nonunion jobs and job loss in heavily unionized sectors," said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. The data also don't yet reflect newly organized workers who still do not have first contracts, she said.
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Southwest Airlines Flight Attendants Authorize Strike (Read)
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Global demand for electricity is set to grow at a faster rate over the next three years, but with record power generation from renewables and nuclear expected to cover the surge, emissions will likely go into structural decline, according to the International Energy Agency. Electricity demand is on track to rise by an average of 3.4% a year through 2026, driven by robust growth in emerging economies, AI, cryptocurrencies and data centers, Giulia Petroni reports.
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Sittin' on the Dock of the Man-Made Lagoon
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From almost every room of their home in St. Johns, Fla., Neal and Barb Shact see an expanse of turquoise blue water, with tall palm trees and a stretch of white sand off their back patio. But the ocean is 17 miles away. How? WSJ's Cecilie Rohwedder looks at the planned communities across the country where developers are ditching backyard pools for giant, artificial lagoons.
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View from above of the Shacts’ West Indies-style waterfront home. PHOTO: ADAM T. DEEN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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Real Time Economics comes to you from WSJ reporters and editors around the world. Today's issue was curated and edited by Jeff Sparshott (@jeffsparshott) and Greg Ip (@greg_ip) in Washington, D.C., and editors in London.
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