Czech central bank buys digital assets including bitcoin worth $1 million for testing purposes

*FED'S HAMMACK SAYS WORRIED ABOUT THE LABOR MARKET: MARKETWATCH turning dovish Fed's Hammack: I have high inflation sticking around - MarketWatch The U.S. official who is most serious about fighting inflation is in Cleveland Part of what drives Beth Hammack's relentless focus on inflation are the conversations she's had with people who live near her office. As president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Hammack is part of the U.S. central-banking system, which has 12 regional banks across the country that help it gather the economic data upon which monetary-policy decisions are based. Some of the data Hammack collects are what's known in the economics trade as soft data - anecdotes, stories, opinions and sentiment. Hammack's region is made up of Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky and parts of West Virginia, and when she goes to these areas, she said she hears about one thing more than any other - the impact of high prices. "When you talk with these low- and moderate-income families, people who are [paid] hourly, they are really struggling," Hammack said in an interview with MarketWatch. "They go from steak to ground beef, ground beef to hot dogs to beans, and at some point you're just having pasta or visiting the food bank." Hammack has been hearing these stories ever since she left Wall Street and her job as co-head of the global financing group at Goldman Sachs and was appointed in 2024 to run the Cleveland Fed. "Most of their paycheck is going to housing, food and transportation," said Hammack. "At some point that ha