Rates this year could reach their highest levels since before the 2008 Wall Street crash if surging prices continue. That prospect has sent stocks sliding this year and pushed mortgage rates above 5 percent for the first time in a decade. In a measure of how jittery investors have become, stocks rose after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank isn’t expecting to hike rates by even larger increments — yet. Even so, he said, more large increases were “on the table” for its next couple of meetings.
“Inflation is much too high and we understand the hardship it is causing,” Powell told reporters after the meeting.
Lifting borrowing costs for the rest of 2022 raises the odds of the U.S. tipping into recession during an election year, an event that would further sour voters already angry at President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy.
Powell said the Fed could avoid that outcome. “We have a good chance to…
