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As we noted yesterday in The Weekly Crib Sheet there are a couple of important events today: 1) the Fed meets on rates and 2) Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, OMB Dir. Peter Orszag and Natl. Council of Economic Adviser Chwmn. Christina Romer are testifying on Capitol Hill today before the House Appropriations Cmte. ostensibly regarding the 2011 fiscal outlook.

WHY YOU CARE:  First, look for stories later today and tomorrow morning on what Geithner/Orszag/Romer have to say on the new financial overhaul legislation dropped by Senate Banking Cmte. Chmn. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) yesterday.  Second – and yes we acknowledge the numbers in and of themselves are not breaking news – we think it is always interesting when you can see the federal government spokespeople map out what they think will happen on jobs and inflation for 2011 and 2012.   You can read the entire Geithner/Orzag/Romer jointly written testimony, but here’s an excerpt that caught our eye:

“As the pace of job creation picks up in 2011 and 2012, there is likely to be greater progress in reducing unemployment. Nonetheless, because of the severe toll the recession has taken on the labor market, the unemployment rate is likely to remain elevated for an extended period. The forecast projects that in the fourth quarter of 2011, the unemployment rate will be 8.9 percent, and that by the fourth quarter of 2012, it will be 7.9 percent.

Inflation. Because of the high levels of slack in the economy, we expect inflation to remain low and see little risk of substantial increases in inflation. At the same time, inflation expectations appear to be well anchored, and so we do not expect inflation to fall substantially further or turn into outright deflation. We project inflation (on a fourth-quarter-to-fourth-quarter basis, as measured by the GDP price index) of 1.0 percent in 2010, 1.4 percent in 2011, and 1.7 percent in 2012.”