Yesterday, our colleague Nick Timuros walked into a place he knows well, the press briefing room at the Federal Reserve.
I walked into the room, my seat was in the back yesterday.
They had instructed all of the reporters beforehand, you know, ask one question, no follow-ups.
The questions were short, the answers were short.
Nick was there to hear from Kevin Warsh, who took over as Fed chair in May.
Having a new Fed chairman, it's a little bit like...
We just started a new school year, right?
It's a little bit like having a new teacher.
Everybody's trying to figure out, well, what's this guy or gal like?
How are they going to respond to this kind of question or that kind of question?
And what's the headline?
What happened yesterday at the Fed?
The Fed raised rates for the first time in three years.
In the meeting just concluded, the FOMC decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by a quarter
of a percentage point to three and three quarters to four percent in support of the Federal Reserve's dual mandate.
This is kind of a big deal.
Raising interest rates is a big deal because it takes a certain amount of evidence
and confidence to say we need to change direction.
Plain fact.
Is that inflation is too high and has been for too long.