Continuing the most aggressive series of rate hikes since the 1980s, at the end of the January meeting of the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) raised the nominal interest rate by 25 basis points to a range of 4.50% to 4.75% due to the easing—but not taming—of inflation which the FOMC is “strongly committed” to returning inflation to its 2% objective.
This marks the eighth consecutive hike and the biggest consecutive rate hike on record. Since the rate hikes began, the FOMC raised rates in March 2022 (+25 points), May 2022 (+50 points), June 2022 (+75 points), August 2022 (+75 points), September (+75 points), November 2022 (+75 points), December 2022 (+50 points), and now in...
