Washington

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank will continue to gradually raise interest rates “for now’’ to keep inflation near target amid a strong U.S. labor market.

Neel Kashkari does not want to invert the yield curve.

An SEC advisory committee heard critics say the muni market is lacking in pre-trade price transparency and that hurts retail investors. But industry officials said MSRB rules have vastly improved muni market transparency.

Two researchers found the Securities and Exchange Commission and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board had different data on municipal advisor registrants with a number of MAs failing to update SEC filings.

States and localities can’t continue to postpone resolving their pension problems or they will crowd out essential services and infrastructure and lose population, Chapman Strategic Advisors managing director James Spiotto says in a paper to be delivered in Washington on Tuesday.

Kalotay faults the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for not requiring training in options-based analytics as part of their certification of municipal advisor representatives.

A newly released research paper found that the probability that a state general obligation bond will be rated higher after the Dodd-Frank Act is 2.7 times greater than before the law was enacted.

The new service will save dealer firms time and effort as they enter into muni underwriting syndicates.

State and local governments were advised Thursday to avoid imposing burdens on out-of-state e-commerce retailers that could spark a new round of litigation as they begin implementing the Supreme Court’s June 21 South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. ruling on sales taxes.

Monetary policy is still accommodative and gradual increases in the fed funds rate target will proceed, according to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy report to Congress, released Friday.