50 Basis Points, as Expected

The Federal Reserve raised the Federal Funds Rate by ½%, as expected.

I continue to believe that this is wrong.  The causes of inflation are not a wage price spiral.  It is a mix of the war in the Ukraine, supply chain issues, and monopoly rents, but central bankers are determined to keep fighting their war on workers:

The Federal Reserve approved an interest-rate increase of 0.5 percentage point and signaled plans to lift rates through the spring, though likely in smaller increments, to combat high inflation.

The decision Wednesday marked a step down after four consecutive larger increases of 0.75 point and raised the benchmark federal-funds rate to a range between 4.25% and 4.5%, a 15-year high.

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The latest increase capped a year in which the Fed raised rates from near zero at the fastest pace since the early 1980s to fight inflation, which is running near a 40-year high.  

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In new economic projections released after the meeting, most Fed officials penciled in plans to raise the fed-funds rate to a peak level between 5% and 5.5% in 2023 and hold it there until some time in 2024. In September, they anticipated lifting the rate to around 4.6% by the end of next year.

To quote Cory Doctorow, "To hear ghouls like Lawrence Summers tell it, there is only one answer to this. We have to immiserate the poors: jack up interest rates, kick off a recession, destroy millions of jobs, until the poors are stripped of their undeserved fortunes, and, humbled, they return to their labors." 

There has been a class war going on in the United States since at least 1977, and the rich are winning.