News From the Control Tower 2/15/2022

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances.

This week’s reads include:

1.       The Hidden Ways Companies Raise Prices

Businesses are passing their rising costs on to consumers with new fees, truncated services and reduced contents in packaged goods, which don’t always show up in inflation data

2.       Inflation Versus Price-Gouging

Lindsay Owens, the executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive economic advocacy group, argues that some companies are hiking prices "while hiding behind inflation."

3.       Far From the Big City, New Economic Life

Incomes are low in small-town Tennessee, but so is the cost of living. That attraction could be a key to reviving many rural areas.

4.       How One of the World’s Biggest Carbon Emitters Got a Factory to Zero Emissions

Panasonic’s push to decarbonize a big plant in China demonstrates the steep challenge for companies trying to reduce the greenhouse gases linked to climate change

5.       Fed's Bullard says the central bank's 'credibility is on the line,' needs to 'front-load' rate hikes

Markets have begun pricing in seven rate hikes this year since Bullard first made his hawkish position known last week.

Bonus:

Saved: the Wordle clue that helped rescue 80-year-old woman from hostage ordeal