Here’s the good news.
After its most aggressive interest rate hikes in 40 years, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday is expected to approve a final quarter-point increase and signal a long-awaited pause, economists say.
The prospect of rate increases ending should be a welcome relief for consumers and businesses struggling with higher borrowing costs. And it could ease the worries of investors battered by the market-dampening fallout from the 13-month rate hiking campaign. Any sign of a halt would come sooner than anticipated and underscore that the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank have acted as a kind of rate increase by curbing lending, economic growth and, most critically, inflation.
Paul Davidson | USA TODAY