The Federal Reserve should start raising interest rates next month to help rein in too-high inflation, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said Friday. But he added that the rate hikes may not have to begin with as big a bang as some have suggested.
With inflation at its hottest level in a generation, the widespread expectation has been for the Fed to ease off its accelerator for the economy by raising short-term rates from their record low of nearly zero, where they've been throughout the pandemic. The only question has been how big and how quickly it will move, because an overly aggressive approach could choke the economy and too much caution could let inflation spiral further.
