A new survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York noted that American households are continuing to ratchet up expectations for the pace of price increases over the next year.

The New York Fed noted that in August, the median expectation for the rate of inflation over the next year increased to 5.2% — the highest seen since the Survey of Consumer Expectations was launched in 2013.

Over a three-year horizon, inflation expectations rose to 4.0%, also a series high for the survey.

Rising survey-based measures of inflation expectations are testing the resolve of policymakers who maintain that the faster pace of price increases is likely to be a temporary phenomenon.

Officials at the Federal Reserve, the central bank tasked with ensuring price stability, have pointed to virus-induced supply chain disruptions as inflationary pressures that can’t last forever.

Donald Trinks is seeing both sides of the labor problem in his restaurant: less business from travelers and not enough workers to capitalize on the business he has left.

More people want to eat in his restaurant, Bart’s Drive-In in Windsor, Connecticut, but Trinks has to close on Wednesday and Thursday nights because he can’t find enough workers. At the same time, his catering business is down because business travel has evaporated with the surge of the coronavirus delta variant.

“We do a lot of business catering, and there’s a lot less business meetings and people coming in from out of state,” said Trinks, who is also Windsor’s mayor.

Connecticut is one of the mostly Northeastern states slowest to recover jobs after the pandemic. Hospitality workers and others who can’t telework are key to job recovery because­­, despite a sudden spike in demand for their services in a reopened economy, many are reluctant to return to the workplace. They’ve been burned by layoffs, helped by extended unemployment benefits that just expired, and face hurdles such as child care uncertainty as schools reopen and the delta variant continues to frustrate expectations.

(Reuters) - A third of U.S. consumers who used "buy now, pay later" services have fallen behind on one or more payments, and 72% of those said their credit score declined, a new study published by personal finance company Credit Karma showed.

The study, conducted by software firm Qualtrics, surveyed 1,044 adult consumers in the United States last month to measure their interest in buy now pay later (BNPL) and found 44% had used these services before.

The usage figure was slightly up from a similar survey conducted by Credit Karma for Reuters in December, while missed payments was down from 38%.

The latest survey found younger consumers were more likely to miss payments. More than half of Gen Z or millennial respondents-- those born between the early 1980s and mid-to-late 1990s-- said they had missed at least one payment. That compares with 22% of Gen X, who were born in the early 1960s to early 1980s, and 10% of Baby Boomers, those born between the mid-1940s and 1980.

In the United States, student debt has grown significantly over the past several decades.

The Federal Reserve estimates that in quarter two of 2021, Americans owed a startling $1.73 trillion in student loans. The record-breaking total marks an increase of 3% compared to quarter two of 2020 — despite a lengthy pause on federal student loan interest rates and the elimination of billions of federally held student loans by the Biden Administration.

The decades-long increase in student debt is even more noticeable when compared to decades prior. In quarter two of 2011, Americans owed roughly $905 billion in student loans which means that U.S. student debt has increased by more than 91% in the past decade.

But not all states shoulder the same share of the student debt crisis.

Most people would likely agree that carrying "bad" or unsecured debt—such as credit card debt and payday loans—can be stressful and anxiety inducing.

Now, a researcher at the University of Missouri has found that the stress of carrying unsecured debt throughout adulthood is also linked to poorer physical health conditions, including pain that interferes with daily activities.

Adrienne Frech, a medical sociologist and associate professor in the MU School of Health Professions, analyzed data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to examine the financial health of nearly 8,000 "Baby Boomers' from age 28 to age 40 as well as their physical health at age 50.

"The most common trend we found was that people who carried their debt with them over time experienced worse physical health later in life," Frech said. "Those with consistently high debt were 76% more likely to have pain that interfered with their daily life compared to those with no unsecured debt, and what surprised us the most was that even the people who did pay down their debt over time were still 50% more likely to have pain interference than those with no unsecured debt."

WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Wednesday proposed rescinding recently updated fair lending rules, as the agency begins work on drafting a new, unified regulation with other bank watchdogs.

Under the proposal, the OCC would go back to the previous 1995 regulations for the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), a 1977 fair lending law.

The new proposal would see the OCC officially scrap new rules that were friendlier to banks by the beginning of 2022, setting the stage for the regulator, alongside the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), to move toward putting forward a joint, updated rule.

"This is a top priority for us, and we're moving with all deliberate speed," acting Comptroller Michael Hsu said in an interview. "We're signaling to folks that we're going to get this thing done."

Maybe “unbanked” isn’t the problem and maybe banks aren’t the solution.

All around the world, in both developing and developed countries, there are hundreds of millions, billions of unbanked people. But why are so many people unbanked? It can’t be because there is a shortage of banks as there are more banks, challenger banks, neo-banks and near-banks than you can shake a stick at. There must be some other problem and, as the old saying goes, where there is a problem there is an opportunity.

It’s a pretty big opportunity, frankly. The Economist summarises the situation in America as follows: access to banks can be costly and seven million households are unbanked, relying on cheque-cashing firms, pawn shops and payday lenders. (They also note that credit and debit cards levy fees of 1-4% on merchants, which are remitted to the rich via air miles and credit-card points.)

The American Bankers Association (A(BA)) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) have called on more banks to provide “basic bank accounts” to serve unbanked consumers. Yet many banks already offer these accounts (eg, Citi, Bank of America

The bureau laid out a list of 23 data points, including the race and gender of borrowers and reasons for loan denial. But some trade groups are taking issue with the proposal's scope.

Banks would be required to report more data on small businesses applying for loans under a notice of proposed rulemaking the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued last week.

Under the proposal — which would cover data pertaining to term loans, lines of credit, credit cards, leases and merchant cash advances — lenders originating 25 or more small business loans must report data on credit applicants, including women-owned and nonwhite-owned businesses.

Alongside the proposed rule, the CFPB released a list of proposed data points to collect — 23, in all — including the race, ethnicity and sex of borrowers, amount sought, amount approved, reasons for denial, and gross annual revenue.