New York Times graphic
It's really hard for anyone less than 50 years old to believe it, but there was a time when US interest rates were at 18% – in 1981-82. The current rate is at less than 1 percent – but the Feds are starting to move to begin to quell current inflation concerns.
(Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point and signaled six more such hikes this year, launching a campaign to tackle the fastest inflation in four decades even as risks to economic growth mount.
Policy makers led by Chair Jerome Powell voted 8-1 to lift their key rate to a target range of 0.25% to 0.5%, the first increase since 2018, after two years of holding borrowing costs near zero to cushion the economy from the pandemic. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard dissented in favor of a half-point hike, the first vote against a decision since September 2020.
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