The Federal Reserve has been aggressively moving to raise interest rates this year in an effort to cool off red-hot inflation that has seen the cost of living across the United States soar.
Prior to March of this year, the central bank, whose duties include maintaining a stable monetary and financial system while maximizing employment, had not increased interest rates since 2018.
However, a string of events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent pandemic-related stimulus, the supply-chain crisis, and the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has sent inflation to 40-year-highs and, as a result, American households are feeling the strain….