Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, told senators on Thursday that policymakers were prepared to rein in inflation as they tried to fulfill their price stability goal — even if that came at an economic cost.“We’re going to use our tools, and we’re going to get this done,” Mr. Powell told the Senate Banking Committee.Mr. Powell has signaled that the Fed is poised to raise interest rates by a quarter percentage point at its meeting that ends March 16, and follow up with additional rate increases over the next several months. Fed officials are also planning to come up with a strategy for shrinking their vast holdings of government-backed debt, which will increase longer-term interest rates.The suite of policy changes will be an effort to weigh on demand, tamping down price increases that are running at their fastest pace in 40 years. The Fed aims for 2 percent price gains on average over time, but inflation came in at 6.1 percent in the year through January.
It is surprising to me how rates have remained so low for so long without inflation, and yet here we are, in a time of increasing rates. I imagine this will make things just a little bit harder for people looking to buy homes or start a business. I can't imagine this will do good things for the chemistry job market, but we shall see. Best wishes to home buyers, startup founders, job seekers, and to all of us.
There's not enough housing, not enough oil, not enough wheat, and they want to compensate for the lack of supply by raising interest rates? It does not make any sense at all.
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