The program in which it is all about the macroeconomic ecosystem.

From American public media, this is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Rizdole.

It is Thursday today, 16 March.

Good as always to have you along.

And one could make a case, I suppose, that we in business and economic journalism

hang too closely on J. Powell's every word.

So stipulated, but we do that because the words that Powell and his central bank colleagues

use can change what happens in this economy.

Case in point, a two word phrase that Powell's been using a whole lot lately, financial

conditions.

In his last three press conferences, the Fed share has used that phrase no less than 29

times.

Yes, we counted.

Financial conditions matter because the Fed's manipulation of short term interest rates

don't shape the economy all by itself.

How markets react to Fed policy is just as important.

And that gets us to today and how the banking situation of the moment is changing the financial

conditions the Fed now has to react to.

Here's Marketplaces Mitchell Harman.

Financial conditions are the things that influence the cost of money for businesses to make payroll,

for consumers to buy new furniture with credit cards.

...