Tapping your card at the grocery store checkout might feel far removed from the giant table inside the U.S. Federal Reserve building in Washington D.C., where the central bank's economists meet eight times a year to determine the future of monetary policy.
Yet how far the wages from your job stretch in that supermarket is of central concern to the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). The price consumers are paying for basics—groceries, household essentials, or shelter—and job occupation rates are the core metrics the FOMC is charged with stabilizing.
