Rate Retrenchment

Earlier today, the Fed announced, unsurprisingly, that it wasn’t raising short-term rates. What was mildly surprising is that despite pretty decent domestic growth, the Fed now expects to raise rates by just half a percentage point in 2016. In December, they anticipated raising rates by twice as much. Why the change? Weak global growth and heightened financial-market volatility. An April rate rise is exceptionally unlikely, June is altogether another story.