Jerome Powell doesn’t like to bless bets in financial markets, but he could shift the needle this week on how high investors expect the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to cool overheated prices.
The Fed chair and his colleagues want to lift rates expeditiously to a neutral level this year that neither stimulates nor restrains growth — around 2.5% — and then slow the pace of tightening.
But in crises, central banks that pause typically lose as the forces they’re battling — be it spreading financial panic or broadening inflation — gain more momentum.
