To raise or not to raise, that’s the dilemma that the Federal Reserve thrust upon the financial markets last week. Maybe you are more into omelets than Hamlets, so let me put it another way. When it came to rate hikes, Wall Street had all its eggs in one basket: that the earliest possible rate hike would not happen until 2017. Then last Wednesday happened. On May 18, the Fed hinted strongly that only the second rate hike of the eight-year Obama Administration will come on June 15. What the … ? Even I, the most virulent prognosticator of a June hike, had recently backed off that prediction. The moral: This above all, ... (full story)