Soaring interest rates punish consumers and taxpayers

After six months of internalizing a soft landing for the economy, investors have stomached the reality that a bipartisan addiction to federal spending is undermining the Federal Reserve’s war on inflation.

With headline consumer price index inflation, wholesale inflation, and the consumption expenditures price index all back on the rise, Treasury futures now predict a majority chance of just three cuts to the federal funds rate this year. More shockingly, the data show there is a 1-in-9 chance the Fed will not deliver a single rate cut by the end of 2024.