内容摘要：Companies, though, are also continuing to warn about how uncertainty in the economy is making it more difficult for them to forecast their own finances.

Companies, though, are also continuing to warn about how uncertainty in the economy is making it more difficult for them to forecast their own finances.

Turiah, his adult daughter, lives in the home with him. Born with a physical disability that prevents her from walking, she spends her days sitting in the home’s front window on an elevated wooden platform.Like many homes in the village, the windows are partially immersed in the sea water that is a permanent fixture inside. In some areas, barnacles and mold rings cling to the walls. Personal items, such as a refrigerator, clothes and an old clock, are kept on wooden platforms elevated above the water from the rising sea level.

Mar’iah sits outside her house while waiting for the flood water to subside in Timbulsloko, Central Java, Indonesia, Sunday, July 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)Mar’iah sits outside her house while waiting for the flood water to subside in Timbulsloko, Central Java, Indonesia, Sunday, July 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)Mar’iah sits in a chair at the end of the village’s elevated walkway, her flooded wooden home not far behind her. A widower, Mar’iah lives alone with no one to help care for her daily needs.

With most trees dead from the sea’s saltwater, there’s no shady place she can sit outside her home unless she’s willing to wade through flooded water.In a soft voice, Mar’iah explains that she sits in the chair every day waiting until her house is dry enough to enter again. Unlike neighboring villages, there’s no dirt left in the village that could be used to help elevate the home’s floor. Wooden platforms used to previously elevate the house have already flooded and remain underwater.

Mar’iah’s remaining neighbors say they have heard that a nearby village has received government aid, but help has not come to Timbulsloko.

Suratmi, who is paralyzed, lies in her bed as her daughter Ngatiroh, right, walks on the floor that has been raised to prevent flood water in their house in Timbulsloko, Central Java, Indonesia, Saturday, July 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)That’s particularly the case after the trade war seems to be entering “a new phase,” Powell said, where the United States is conducting more talks on trade with other countries.

To be sure, the Fed also said it appreciates that risks to the economy are rising because of tariffs, which could both weaken the job market and push inflation higher.“If the large increases in tariffs that have been announced are sustained, they are likely to generate a rise in inflation, a slowdown in economic growth and an increase in unemployment,” Powell said.

That could ultimately put the Fed in a worst-case scenario called “stagflation,” where the economy is stagnating while inflation remains high. Such a combination is hated because the Fed has no good tools to fix it. If the Fed were to try to cut interest rates to bolster the economy and job market, for example, it could raise inflation further. Raising rates would have the opposite effect.In the meantime, big U.S. companies continue to produce fatter profits for the start of 2025 than analysts expected.