TLDRS:

New York Federal Reserve Bank’s August 2023 Business Leaders Survey shows the region’s (New York, southern New Jersey, and southwestern Connecticut) service sector activity as stable for the second month in a row.
Remember, services are where ~2/3 of consumer spending ends up.
The main business activity index was nearly unchanged at 0.6.
The business climate index increased by four points but was still negative (-24.3), indicating a below-average business environment.
Employment grew a bit, and wage growth accelerated bigly.
Prices also rose at a faster rate than the previous month–inflation is not slowing down across the board in this region!
Those surveyed believe Wages and Prices will continue rising over the next 6 months…
Reminder, while banks have the liquidity fairy, ‘we’ get the promise of 2 more rate hikes this year, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic yet again enrichens himself inappropriately from his position.
To fix one end of their mandate (price stability) from the inflation problem they created, the Fed will continue sacrificing employment (the other end of their mandate) to bolster price stability by continuing to raise interest rates–causing further stress to businesses and households.
I believe inflation is the match that has been lit that will light the fuse of our rocket.

TLDRS:

New York Federal Reserve Bank’s August 2023 Business Leaders Survey shows the region’s (New York, southern New Jersey, and southwestern Connecticut) service sector activity as stable for the second month in a row.
Remember, services are where ~2/3 of consumer spending ends up.
The main business activity index was nearly unchanged at 0.6.
The business climate index increased by four points but was still negative (-24.3), indicating a below-average business environment.
Employment grew a bit, and wage growth accelerated bigly.
Prices also rose at a faster rate than the previous month–inflation is not slowing down across the board in this region!
Those surveyed believe Wages and Prices will continue rising over the next 6 months…

Inflation Alert! New York Fed Business Survey (New York State, northern New Jersey and southwestern Connecticut): “Employment continued to increase slightly, and wage growth picked up. The pace of price increases was somewhat higher than last month”. Inflation is not slowing down!