Federal Reserve officials held interest rates steady at their monthly policy meeting on Sept. 20, 2023 ' only the second time they have done so since embarking on a rate-raising campaign a year and a half ago. But it is what they hinted at rather than what they did that caught many economists' attention: Fed officials indicated that they don't expect rates to end 2023 higher than they did in June ' when they last issued their projections. Since the hiking cycle began, observers have worried about whether increased rates could push the U.S. economy into a downturn. Some have even speculated that a recession had already begun. However, the economy has been more resilient than many expected, and now many economists are wondering whether the seemingly impossible soft landing ' that is, a slowdown that avoids crashing the economy ' has become a reality. As a finance professor, I think it's premature to start celebrating. Inflation is still almost double the Federal Reserve's target of...
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