The chain will be closing the additional three locations in Caldwell, Mountain Home and Nampa, though Albertsons will acquire those properties as well. Albertsons has acquired all seven, with current plans to rebrand four locations (in Homedale, Kuna, Boise and McCall) as Albertsons. The regional family-owned chain Paul’s Market has enjoyed slow but steady growth and a loyal following since the launch of its first location-over the years, one market grew into seven across the state. RELATED CONTENT: Haggen takes Albertsons to task with $1 billion lawsuit This time around Albertsons is expanding its reach in Idaho, through the acquisition of Paul’s Market. Still, once again the subject at hand is growth and expansion. 'Should we be willing to pay a high price to get inflation down from 3 to 2?' Krugman said.Albertsons Companies is back in the news, but this time in a much smaller way than its massive acquisition of Safeway or its high-profile rocky relationship with Haggen. The Fed also risks pushing the economy into recession if it continues to raise interest rates for the sake of pursuing its 2% inflation target, he previously warned. Though Krugman said 4% inflation may be too high to assuage public concerns, prices hovering around 3% could be enough to smooth over worries about the US economy.

That will dip even lower as grocery prices continue to fall, Krugman predicted. But most people don't even have a clear understanding of what the Fed even does, Krugman said, making the case that it was more important for the public to stop worrying about inflation.Īnd data shows that people may already be moving on from the topic: the 12-week moving average of Google searches for 'inflation' has been on the decline since August of last year. We have, in fact, spent a large fraction of the time since that paper was published at the zero lower bound, even though inflation has in fact averaged around two percent,' Krugman said.Įconomists have also raised concern that the Fed risks losing credibility on inflation if it doesn't get prices back down to the 2% target.

Inflation around 2% would prevent interest rates from hovering near the zero lower bound, according to a 2000 paper. That's still above the Fed's long-run inflation target of 2% – but that target was arbitrary to begin with, Krugman said, and the number was largely drawn to give central bankers leeway to lower interest rates in the event of a recession. In an op-ed for the New York Times on Thursday, the Nobel economist pointed to elevated inflation over the past year, with prices falling from a 41-year-peak above 9% last summer to 4.9% in April's Consumer Price Index report. The Federal Reserve shouldn't obsess over getting inflation back down to its target of 2%, and the national conversation around the issue has already died down as prices have continued to cool steadily throughout this year, according to economist Paul Krugman.

Pauls market homedale