Buckle up: The Fed is about to get tough on inflation
Last month, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since December 2018. Now there are growing expectations that the central bank is about to dramatically step up the size and pace of its rate hikes in order to put a brake on surging consumer prices.
St. Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard, one of the more hawkish members among the Fed's regional bank chiefs, reiterated at an event Monday that the Fed needs to "expeditiously" raise rates in order to tamp down inflation. (Inflation hawks typically push for higher rates while so-called doves favor lower rates to stimulate growth.) Bullard suggested the Fed could raise rates by as much as 75 basis points.
Fed chair Jerome Powell has started to sound a lot more hawkish in recent weeks, but he may not want to move as aggressively as Bullard would like. But it's clear that rates are likely to start climbing a lot higher soon.
"The Fed should have taken the opportunity to raise rates earlier. There is only so much they can do now, it's almost already too late," said Johan Grahn, vice president and head of ETFs at AllianzIM. "But they have to get ahead of this, and unfortunately the recipe for that is to move more aggressively with rate hikes."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/buckle-up-the-fed-is-about-to-get-tough-on-inflation/ar-AAWrHDY
