US Bond Market Week in Review: Is the Fed's Inflation Thinking Finally Changing?

            This expansion has been difficult for the Fed due to its dual mandate.  The jobs market is near full employment, save for the weaker utilization numbers, which fulfills half of the Fed’s dual mandate  Prices are a different story.  For the last few years, economic commentators have noted the dichotomy between the Fed’s rosy inflation predictions – which continually project PCE inflation at 2% in the intermediate term – and the underlying trend, which has been weaker than the central bank’s projections.  Slowly Fed governors noted the weakness.  In this month’s