Sunday, January 11, 2009

The rapidly progressing debate in Congress over a giant stimulus bill isn't the only economic action this week. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will give his first public explanation of the Fed's most recent rate cuts and other moves in a speech Tuesday on the policy response to the crisis. On Wednesday, December retail sales data will be released, indicating how disastrous the Christmas buying season was; look for a 1.2 percent drop. Also Wednesday, the Fed will release its "beige book" compilation of anecdotal economic information, which is likely to show broad-based misery. Thursday and Friday, the producer price index and consumer price index will be released, showing how much inflation has fallen.

-- Neil Irwin