Powell: Fed must convince public it can tame inflation

By PAUL WISEMAN
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — As if their job weren’t hard enough at a time of raging inflation, Chair Jerome Powell and his Federal Reserve colleagues have to do more these days than decide just how much to raise interest rates without triggering a recession. They also have a sales job on their hands: Convincing the public that they will succeed in reducing inflation — now at 8.6%, a four decade high — to the central bank’s goal of 2% a year. Powell told Congress that Americans do seem reassured, at least for now: Measures of consumer sentiment show that people generally think inflation will eventually subside.