Washington

It is not clear whether FOMC members truly believe their higher inflation and interest rate forecasts, or if they are being overly hawkish to prevent further market exuberance.

Many believe the Federal Reserve will slow down rate increases beginning in December.. Steve Friedman, senior macroeconomist at MacKay Shields, will join us the day after the meeting to discuss what was done and what he expects in the future.

"This week will likely have been the last active week of the year, but it turned out to be quite eventful," according to Barclays PLC.

State spending growth topped 18.2% in FY 2022, the highest annual increase in state spending since the National Association of State Budget Officers began recording the data in 1979.

The clock is ticking on Congress waiving PAYGO for Build America Bonds, a budget bear trap that could delay promised subsidy payments totaling $14 billion to issuers.

Municipal issuers pushed hard but unsuccessfully against the bill, which gives them four years to standardize their financial information.

Outflows returned as Refinitiv Lipper reported $1.217 billion was pulled out of municipal bond mutual funds for the week ending Wednesday after $46.912 million of inflows the week prior.

Must-pass spending bills and a debt ceiling fight are in the near future.

The regulation would establish a universal standard requiring dealers in any transaction with a customer to use reasonable diligence to get the customer the best price.

The Fed chairman said he believes the Fed is getting close to a sufficiently restrictive level, but they're not quite there. While two good inflation reports are good, "there's still a long way to go to price stability."