Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was optimistic in his economic assessment on Tuesday and told the Senate Banking Committee he expects the Fed to continue to gradually raise interest rates, at least "for now." Mr. Powell cited low unemployment and inflation close to its 2% objective level as reasons for being positive. Those were two key reasons the central bank last month raised the federal funds rate for the second time in 2018, this time to a range of 1.75% to 2%. "We are aware that, on the one hand, raising interest rates too slowly may lead to high inflation or financial market excesses," Mr. ... (full story)