America’s inflation fever may be breaking at last
But the Federal Reserve is not popping champagne just yet
![2JFFD9D Everett, WA USA - circa June 2022: Close up view of Barbie doll products for sale inside a Fred Meyer grocery store.](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20221217_FNP502.jpg)
“We will stay the course until the job is done,” said Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve’s chairman, on December 14th, shortly after the central bank’s latest interest-rate rise. As a statement of intent, his words were both straightforward and utterly sensible. But what it means for the job to be done is becoming a matter of controversy. Inflation remains uncomfortably high. Meanwhile, the aggressive monetary tightening of the past year is only now filtering through to the economy, complicating assessments of whether the Fed has in fact done enough to rein in prices.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Fed rest”
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