Not Finance person, but Fed not raising interest rate would evoke suspicion about how bad is it? it being the financial health of the system.
This is more or less in line with expectations.
This is more or less in line with expectations.
> The U.S. banking system is sound and resilient.
That is something like saying "the house is not falling down" - you don't need to say it if the house isn't at risk of falling down. I think the statement is true right now, but they are hoping to stem the bleeding on bank balances.
From later:
> Russia's war against Ukraine is causing tremendous human and economic hardship and is contributing to elevated global uncertainty.
While true, it's hard to think that they aren't planning to set up a scapegoat here.
If somebody asks "is the house falling down" and you ignore the question then that's worse than responding "no."
OTOH, to the extent the banking turmoil and recession risk is a problem, the hike directly makes it worse. That may not be a better choice than something that merely signals that you think it is worse.
If we are timid now, it will only require larger course corrections later if we want to get inflation under control. The longer we wait, the more inflation gets baked into expectations and pricing.
SVB was supposed to be an isolated event. While they were large, they were not "too large to fail". If their failure was enough to rattle the entire system, things are in serious trouble.