Forbes Advisor has compiled this history as a handy guide to the course of the federal funds rate and the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decisions since 1990. The federal funds rate is the ...

History, for example ... Before the Great Recession, the market-driven “effective” federal funds rate averaged 6.38 percent. Rate moves are expressed in “basis points,” which are equal ...

These illustrated market experiences are quite different than what most folks believe happens when the Fed lowers rates.

The central bank’s decision to pause at its first meeting of 2025 followed a series of cuts that began in September to ...

28 and 29, 2025. Starting in September, the FOMC lowered the federal funds rate three times in late 2024, ending the year with a target range of 4.25% to 4.50%. That flurry of activity ...

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said “we do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance” and monetary policy is “well ...

Here’s how the central bank’s interest rate stance influences car loans, credit cards, mortgages, savings and student loans.