Fed Navigates Soft Landing, Taming Inflation Without Recession
• The Fed raised interest rates aggressively to combat inflation, risking recession, yet may have avoided one through luck and competent policymaking
• The job market remained strong despite rate hikes, aided by lingering pandemic impacts like the Great Resignation
• Consumer spending stayed resilient, helped initially by stimulus checks then by revenge travel and other factors
• Some bad news, like regional banking crises, paradoxically helped the Fed slow rate hikes just enough to avoid recession
• The Fed tamed inflation substantially without triggering mass layoffs, an unprecedented “soft landing” achievement in modern times