The press is fairly slavering for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. You can hardly read an item in the business pages without some commentator declaring that, at last, the unemployment rate is low enough and the growth rate high enough that the Fed can tighten money… and choke off further progress. Hosannas!
But the commentators have to strain to tell us how good things are. Yes, wages are up this year and unemployment is down, but as EPI's comprehensive report makes clear, these gains have only begun to reverse several decades of rising inequality.
Why does the financial community want higher interest rates? So that banks and other creditors can make more money, of course. And to head off inflation that for the moment is mostly imaginary. And to keep down worker pressure for higher wages. Just what you'd expect of financial elites.
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