think, going forward this fall and winter with people s electric utility bills. home heating bills. giant increases are coming. so i don t think we re out of the woods at all on inflation right now. the other thing that is going on in the economy right now is that you are just seeing a slowdown in activity. manufacturing numbers were poor. housing numbers were poor. the small business numbers were poor. i am just worried about we re in the soft recession where the economy isn t growing. and if you want to bring tuition rates down, which we all do. that s one of the driving forces of inflation over the last 30 years, how is letting people off the hook for paying their loans helping the problem? it will just encourage universities to raise prices. i think universities should be held accountable for all the debt out there and they should be on the hook for this unpaid debt, not the taxpayer. dana: can i get your take on
million jobs, never in any of those moments have the unemployment rate been down at 3.6% where we are now, so this is a unique time. truly a unique time, but we can move forward and we can bring prices down without giving up all of those economic gains, and the choices we make matter. i would just underscore that. passing the chips act was a choice that the president prioritized. congress prioritized it. that s going bring progress. how specifically would the chips act help? if you look in the 2021, a third of the inflation we saw was associated with the price of cars. the price of cars went up prescription police because we didn t have enough supply, didn t have enough semiconductors, computer chips to make all of the cars that people wanted to buy. we are now investing. we re going to invest in an historic way in building that supply and importantly building it here with more resilient supply chains so that american consumers and the american economy isn t left to the whims of gl
that s it for me this hour. i m lindsey reiser. i ll be back with more news after a quick break, including a talk with jared bernstein, a member of the white house counsel of economic advisers. we ll talk about what president biden is expected to say when he speaks at noon about the economy. you re watching jose diaz-balart reports.
have declined in the second quarter. joining us now to take a closer look at all of this, nbc news senior business correspondent stephanie ruhle, also host of the 11th hour here on msnbc. nbc news correspondent jake ward in san francisco. and austan goolsbee, former chair of the council of economic advisers, now a professor at the university of chicago booth s school of business. stephanie, we want to go to you first. second quarter gdp number, it could change. it s only an estimate right now. why are we seeing economic growth falling for the second straight quarter? because the fed raised interest rates. this is what they were trying to do. remember, months ago we were talking about how hot the economy was, right? people were coming out of covid, there was huge demand for everything. for travel, retail, events, and for homes, and the fed is trying to raise rates to slow that down and even out supply and demand. it s difficult. when you start to see things
through this transition stronger and more secure. also this morning, we learned that 256,000 people filed first-time unemployment claims last week. that s a slight decrease from the week before. this comes one day after the federal reserve raised its benchmark federal funds rate by three-quarters of a percentage point. it s the fourth rate hike this year. here s what this means for you. it is more expensive to borrow money for a mortgage, a car loan, a student loan and your credit card interest rate is about to go up. federal reserve chairman jerome powell insists the economy is not in a recession, but he says economic activity is slowing. growth and consumer spending has slowed significantly. in part reflecting lower real disposable income and tighter financial conditions. activity in the housing sector has weakened, in part reflecting higher mortgage rates. and after a strong increase in the first quarter, business fixed investment also looks to