Inflation has also slowed significantly. Consumer prices rose at a 2.6 percent rate in the second quarter, down from 4.1 percent in the first quarter and from more than 7 percent in the first half of last year. That has eased pressure on the Fed to keep raising rates, leading some forecasters to question whether a recession is such a sure thing after all. Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, said on Wednesday that the central bank’s staff economists no longer expected a recession to begin this year.White House officials pointed to the report as evidence that President Biden’s economic policies, including investments in infrastructure and green energy, were paying off. In a blog post on Thursday, the president’s Council of Economic Advisers noted that investment in manufacturing facilities contributed more than a third of a percenta …
