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Episode 751Sep 14, 2022

These aren’t your grandpa’s high interest rates

But they still hurt.

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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange June 15, 2022 in New York as the US Federal Reserve announces a hike in interest rates. - he Federal Reserve announced the most aggressive interest rate increase in nearly 30 years, raising the benchmark borrowing rate by 0.75 percentage points on June 15 as it battles against surging inflation. The Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee reaffirmed that it remains "strongly committed to returning inflation to its 2 percent objective" and expects to continue to raise the key rate.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange June 15, 2022 in New York as the US Federal Reserve announces a hike in interest rates. - he Federal Reserve announced the most aggressive interest rate increase in nearly 30 years, raising the benchmark borrowing rate by 0.75 percentage points on June 15 as it battles against surging inflation. The Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee reaffirmed that it remains "strongly committed to returning inflation to its 2 percent objective" and expects to continue to raise the key rate.
(Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

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High(er) interest rates are here and probably not going anywhere anytime soon. Today’s inflation numbers almost guarantee that the Federal Reserve will raise rates by another three-quarters of a percentage point.

But it’s been such a long time since the U.S. economy has been in a high-interest-rate environment that many of us are wondering exactly how to navigate our personal finances.

“I think you really do have to reassess your relationship with credit because a lot of us, if we’re honest, have leaned on borrowing to excessive levels. And that’s particularly true with credit card debt,” said Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, personal finance expert and author of the book “Zero Debt: The Ultimate Guide to Financial Freedom.”

On the show today, Khalfani-Cox explains what high interest rates mean for consumers and why they aren’t translating into higher savings rates. As always, consult your own personal finance expert before making financial decisions.

Later, we’ll talk about the latest inflation report and look into whether child poverty is really getting better. We’ll do the numbers.

Then, stick around to hear what artificial intelligence has to do with French fries, and a philosopher drops some wisdom on us.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

Join us tomorrow for Whaddya Wanna Know Wednesday. And if you’ve got a question about money, business or the economy, leave us a voice mail at 508-U-B-SMART or email us at makemesmart@marketplace.org.

The Team