Well, let's see Rizdahl.

It is Wednesday. Today, this one is the 18th of February.

Good as always, to have you along, everybody.

All right, go ahead and try this one in your u.s monetary policy magic eight ball that you have

stashed in your desk not only a prolonged hold in interest rates this year but maybe an interest

rate increase one parses the minutes of federal reserve meetings the latest version of which for the meeting

of 27 28 January came out today one parses the minutes of Federal Reserve meetings, the latest version of which for the meeting of 27, 28 January came out today. One parses those minutes to finally at one's peril, but it is

tough to misread this sentence. And here I quote, upward adjustments to the target range for the

federal funds rate could be appropriate if inflation remains at above

target levels. Upward adjustments, of course, interest rate increases. And I will just point out

here that inflation, while lower, is still half a percentage point above where the central

bank wants it to be. Thus endeth the interest rate portion of this program.

For the umpteenth time, I will note here, moving on, that for whatever else immigration

policy is being used for right now, the number of people coming into this economy is at

root a labor market story.

And as we have been reporting, it's been a bit tricky of late

to get a firm grip on what is going on with jobs. But there's a new research note out from the

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco that makes at least one thing clear, a direct relationship

between the number of unauthorized immigrants to this economy and job growth.

Marketplace's Nova Saffo explains.

The San Francisco Fed looked at the Biden-era spike in unauthorized immigration starting in 2021

and a slowdown period from March 24 to March 2025.

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