This is test blog for NEWS PROD ENV JAN 21
The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it would hold the line on short-term interest rates, with an eye toward raising them “soon,” and that it would pare the rate of its asset purchases, bringing them to a halt in early March.
“The committee is of a mind to raise the federal funds rate at the March meeting,” Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday afternoon at a news conference after a two-day policymaking meeting. That would mean the rate hike would come almost exactly two years to the day after the central bank slashed rates to zero in response to the emergence of the fast-spreading coronavirus, which threatened to destabilize the entire financial system.
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Fast-forward to 2022 and the macroeconomic climate has changed markedly: Today, the greatest economic worry for many is rapidly rising prices of food, fuel, housing and a host of other goods and services.








