Will higher interest rates add to the U.S. government’s fiscal troubles?
With the U.S. annual inflation rate at a four-decade high of 8.6 percent, the Federal Reserve is accelerating its monetary policy tightening by aggressively raising interest rates. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) pulled the trigger on a 75-basis-point rate hike Wednesday and the U.S. rate futures market is penciling in another three-quarter-point boost at next month’s policy meeting.
But now that the central bank is moving on from a near-zero benchmark Fed funds rate, there are growing concerns about how much this tightening cycle will affect the national debt crisis….