Fed hikes rates by half a percentage point in fight against inflation
Source: Washington Post
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates Wednesday by half a percentage point, and scaled back other pandemic-era economic supports, strengthening its efforts to fight the highest inflation in 40 years. “The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is causing tremendous human and economic hardship.
The implications for the U.S. economy are highly uncertain,” according to a statement released at the conclusion of the Fed’s two-day policy meeting. “The invasion and related events are creating additional upward pressure on inflation and are likely to weigh on economic activity. In addition, COVID-related lockdowns in China are likely to exacerbate supply chain disruptions.”
The Fed also announced it will start scaling back its nearly $9 trillion balance sheet in June, moving at a quicker pace than the last time the Fed shrank its portfolio, several years following the Great Recession. At 2:30 p.m. Eastern time, Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell will answer questions on the economic outlook, inflation, the job market, and whether the Fed can manage to slow the economy without causing a recession.
Global uncertainty also clouds the path ahead, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drives energy prices up, and covid shutdowns in China trigger a new wave of supply chain snarls. The rate increase is the sharpest since 2000 and the second of seven hikes forecast for this year. Faced with soaring prices and a hot job market with record numbers of job openings, the Fed began raising rates in March, betting that a steady series of hikes will slash inflation, cool down the economy and get the coronavirus recovery on more sustainable footing.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/05/04/fed-rate-hike-inflation-may/
Expected.
= new reply since forum marked as read
And to answer your question, here's why:
https://nationalstew.com/this-is-trump-inflation-and-here-is-why/
This Is Trump Inflation, And Here Is Why
October 19, 2021 admin
The inflation we are experiencing is a result of failed Trump policies including, but not limited to:
1. Holding interest rates at near-zero for four years, which simultaneously and artificially held the bulging inflation dam from breaking and flooding during his administration, and broke the only lever that the new administration could use to end inflation!
And here's why:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/12/jerome-powell-inflation-federal-reserve-tom-cotton-trump-biden.html
Powell was an inflation dove, leaving interest rates low in order to run the economy hot. Trump was constantly demanding Powell push interest rates even lower.
Cotton’s view implies that Powell was wrong, and Trump was even more wrong:
Mr. Powell also maintained the Fed’s radical emergency monetary policies a decade after the end of the 2007–08 financial crisis. The Fed had thereby already exhausted the normal tools of monetary policy when the pandemic hit and was forced to use unprecedented levels of government intervention to prop up the U.S. economy. As a result, the Fed’s balance sheet is nearly $9 trillion and continues to grow by more than $100 billion a month. For perspective, the Fed’s balance sheet barely surpassed $2 trillion after the financial crisis.
anywhere from +25 basis points up through as high as +75 basis points. So I "expected" the average would be "it". 
(like here in PA I think it is 25%) despite their sponsored banks paying little to "borrow" from the fed. So the change is going to mean the banks will have to "pay more" to borrow (and they already gouge the consumer to borrow from them so that will definitely go up).
Will see how long it takes them to reflect it in how much they pay savers with interest-bearing accounts. 
and the tariffs on the materials that were needed for manufacturing here (the little that we still do) killed it for the domestic companies.
By Heather Long and Andrew Van Dam
January 17, 2020
U.S. manufacturing was in a mild recession for all of 2019, according to data released Friday by the Federal Reserve. The downturn is a sore spot in an otherwise healthy U.S. economy and a potential weakness for President Trump, who promised to bring back blue-collar jobs.
In contrast with steady growth in the larger economy, U.S. factory production shrank by 1.3 percent in the past year, the Federal Reserve reported. It marked the worst year for manufacturing since 2015, as the trade war, lackluster global growth and problems at airplane maker Boeing hurt America’s industrial economy.
A technical recession occurs when output falls for six months, as it did from January to June last year. There were signs of a rebound after manufacturing production rose from July to September, but the latest data show that output fell back into negative territory in the fourth quarter.
Large U.S. manufacturers like Caterpillar have blamed Trump’s trade war for their slumping sales. The tariffs have hit the hardest on parts used to make cars, washing machines and other products, raising costs for U.S. manufacturing companies. A widely watched gauge of the health of the manufacturing sector — a survey of purchasing managers from the Institute for Supply Management — fell in December to its lowest level since the Great Recession. Global trade “remains the most significant cross-industry issue,” the ISM report said.
(snip)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/01/17/us-manufacturing-was-mild-recession-during-2019-sore-spot-economy/
Of course the rest was history...
ETA to note that yeah, these "0%" (or close to that) for so long have seemingly addicted people to that being "the norm". It never was. I remember when one of my sisters bought a house back in 2003 and was able to "catch" a mortgage rate of 5.25% before it crept up again. With the "0%" era, the mortgages were running in the 3% - 4% range.
that right now, there are "too many dollars circulating" (equivalent of "printing too much money" ), and that normally puts the dollar into a position of being "weak". So by pulling some of that out of circulation (and back into a bank through interest rates), the "value" of the dollar goes up and thus the "price" of goods would not be as much ( "on paper" ).
HOWEVER the exchange rates for the dollar sortof belie that whole thing (the dollar is about at parity with Euro)! 
There seems to be one explanation for that here -
Apr. 22, 2022 by Joseph Brusuelas
Policy by the central bank, interest rate differentials and a risk haven move into U.S. dollar-denominated assets are driving up the dollar against major trading currencies.
This is a welcome development as the Federal Reserve continues to prepare investors for a significant increase in the federal funds rate that may move from its current range between zero and 25 basis points to above the Fed’s estimate of the neutral policy rate of 2.5% by the end of the year.
On the margin, a stronger dollar tends to decrease the price of imports, which would weigh on U.S. inflationary pressures through the consumption channel. At the same time, it would cause foreign purchasers to switch from more expensive dollar-based goods to cheaper alternatives produced elsewhere.
That would dampen the demand for U.S. exports while assisting the shift in policy toward bringing inflation back down around the central bank’s 2% target, even at the expense of slower growth and possibly higher unemployment next year.
(snip)
https://realeconomy.rsmus.com/why-the-u-s-dollar-is-strengthening/
Personally (and I think many have also posted similar), there's a lot of speculation going on instead of true fundamentals of "supply and demand" and instead, with little or no mechanism to keep shady folks from gouging, the incentive is there to charge whatever they think "the market will bear". Of course the claims are also that a component of this is "wage inflation" despite the fact that wages were stagnant for 40 years until the sudden pandemic and "the great resignation".
