Inflation Could Lead Fed to Push Rates Up

[NVMojo]

All I can say is DUH!!! About that Bankruptcy Bill!!!

WASHINGTON (AP) -- While mortgage rates and other interest rates are expected to keep rising this year, those increases are likely to continue at a gradual pace unless inflation becomes a threat.

But with oil prices surging to record highs, the worry about out-of-control inflation remains very real.

Analysts said if policy-makers at the Federal Reserve grow concerned that inflation is becoming a problem, they are likely to start pushing up interest rates at a much more rapid clip.

More about the Fed's intentions was being revealed Tuesday when Fed policy-makers convene for their second meeting of the year.

It was widely expected that they would boost the Fed's target for the federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other, by another quarter-point. It would be the seventh quarter-point increase since the Fed started raising rates last June when the funds rate stood at a 46-year low of 1 percent. The funds rate is 2.50 percent.

more...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FED_INTEREST_RATES?SITE=NVLAS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[gnofg]

1. Stagflation

For anyone who remembers the 70"s.

[blogbear]

2. You mean? No toilet paper but mag catalogues instead, double digit...

inflation, disaster with failed rescue attempt and embassy attack in Iran? Is this about when it became fashionable to jist pray about it?

[Jacobin]

3. Lovely, wasn't it?

It's like trying to drive up a hill but the accelerator is blocked.