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High interest rates and energy prices stressing US economy
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Perhaps the greatest economic problem in the trifecta of energy prices, the dollar and higher interest rates is the effect of rising rates.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Jeff Sommer
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NEW YORK – Interest rates are rising. Oil prices are climbing. Either alone might be difficult to swallow. But mixing them creates a nasty concoction – one that is distasteful for consumers, off-putting for most investors and dangerous for the US economy.
The interest rates I’m referring to are set by traders in the vast fixed-income market. There, US Treasury yields have risen to their highest levels in decades, increasing costs for consumers and businesses, unsettling the stock market and complicating the Federal Reserve’s efforts to subdue inflation without causing a recession.
