Maurice Hinchey: “I want to talk this evening for just a few minutes about the meeting of the Federal Reserve Federal Open Market…”

“I want to talk this evening for just a few minutes about the meeting of the Federal Reserve Federal Open Market Committee which will take place on Tuesday of next week, the 31st of March. This is a very important meeting, as all of these meetings are, because the Federal Open Market Committee will in effect be setting short-term interest rates for the months ahead. Setting short-term interest rates is important because it governs so much of the lending that goes on, particularly the consumer lending that goes on in our country. It is consumer lending and borrowing that affects so much of our economic circumstances, including the level of growth. So the interest rates which will be determined at this meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on Tuesday are critically important. The Fed has been saying, in effect, that they have been holding interest rates steady. That is essentially true. They have been holding them steady at about 5\1/2\ percent. When you factor in the very important fact that the consumer prices, in other words, the cost of living, has been going down, then you see that real interest rates have, in fact, been going up over the course of the last many months.”