Cash News
The red line is the difference in the spread we discussed above. Notice to the far right, in June 2022, the real rate of interest was -8.3%. In other words, policy was so weak, it had no effect on prices. At the time, the effective fed funds rate was close to zero while inflation growth peaked at 9.1%. So, shortly thereafter, the Fed started a series of aggressive rate hikes to get price growth back under control.