With inflation nearing the Fed’s 2 percent target rate, Americans are now wondering: what’s the point?
“Inflation did slow down so I don’t know the point of it. I see more of an issue with homes and buying a house,” Jacob Abadi, a New Yorker who works as a buyer for a liquor store, told The Hill in an interview on Tuesday.
“With regard to the rates, it’s just simply not affordable.”
Higher mortgage and financing rates that are directly impacted by the Fed’s interest rate decisions are top-of-mind for many Americans.
Jen Gilbert, a 54-year-old auto claims adjuster outside Tulsa, Okla., told The Hill her family needed to buy a new vehicle.
Even though she and her husband negotiated a great price and have excellent credit scores, she said the interest payments are “killing” her.
The Fed is looking for a “cooling” labor market, which has been good for workers, as it weighs whether to raise rates further.
Despite worker-friendly conditions and a sunnier consumer outlook, the pandemic took a toll on many Americans.
Several told The Hill they see the effort to bring prices down by slowing economic activity with higher rates as misguided.
“Where can you balance it out?” said James Vesprey, who worked for more than two decades at a Marriott Marquis in Times Square, Manhattan, before being laid off during the pandemic.
The Hill’s Tobias Burns has more here.
