Accountable.US, a government watchdog, called on the U.S. Federal Reserve to stop any further interest rate hikes for the foreseeable future because experts predict it would cause a recession. The Fed’s repeated interest rate hikes are slowing the economy based on several economic indicators.
Accountable.US warns further hikes “would needlessly and unnecessarily cause a recession and result in millions of Americans losing their jobs,” according to a press release.
“The Federal Reserve would jeopardize today’s positive economic news if it decides to drive up interest rates and needlessly push us into a recession. Even higher rates would mean fewer jobs and do nothing to curb the corporate greed epidemic.” Liz Zelnick, director of Accountable.US’ Economic Security & Corporate Power, said. “A recession is not inevitable, but the Fed has done the economy no favors.”
According to the U.S. Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index report, “corporate profiteering remains largely unfazed” by the Fed’s interest rate hikes.
“It’s time they cut their losses before the economy really goes south and let Congress use the power it has to rein in corporate profiteering,” Zelnick said.
Austan Goolsbee, Chicago Federal Reserve President and Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), said “policymakers will need to be patient through the disinflation process, and is hopeful the central bank can bring inflation down to its 2% target without causing a recession,” according to a press release.
“Rather than arguing about the peak rate, of how many more rate increases do there need to be, what we should probably start thinking about is how long does this last, that you’re going to be at these elevated rates,” Goolsbee said.
Other FOMC members believe the U.S. is just about at a peak rate so its time to “hold the rates steady” and “let the monetary policy actions we have taken do their work,” Patrick Harker, Philadelphia Federal Reserve President And FOMC member said.
“I think we’re pretty close to what a peak rate would be, and the question will really be — once we have a good understanding of that, how long will we need to keep policy in a restrictive stance, and what does that mean,” John C. Williams, New York Federal Reserve President and FOMC member, said.
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