“…The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point Wednesday, reflecting widespread optimism about America’s economic outlook.
The rate increase, the second thus far in 2018 and the seventh since the Great Recession, will result in higher interest rates on credit cards, home-equity lines, and other forms of credit. The increase, which comes after a similar incremental hike in March, places the Fed’s benchmark rate between 1.75 and 2 percent.
The move, which was announced at the conclusion of a two-day meeting, continues a pattern of gradually contracting monetary policy that began in 2015 and interrupted years of unchanged interest rates designed to revive the economy after the collapse of 2008.
Officials suggested that they will raise rates twice more in 2018, but with unemployment at a near-record low of 3.8 percent, some economists believe additional rate increases will be necessary to stave off inflation…”