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Fed rate hike: speed and size matter more than the start
Experts and the media have obsessed for months about when the Fed will make its first interest rate hike. Will it be June? September? 2016? But here's the catch: the liftoff date is just an appetizer. The main course -- the meat of the issue -- is how quickly the Fed raises rates. Will the Fed push rates up several times in the months that follow? Will those increases be small nudges or big jumps? The speed is arguably more important to the U.S. economy and stock market than when the play starts. "The pace is much more important than the date of the first rate hike," says Gus Faucher, senior economist at PNC ... (full story)