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Ex-president to stump for Republicans in Florida, Ohio and IowaSign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by emailAnother Democratic senator has spoken up ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting next week, explicitly calling on the American central bank not to continue raising interest rates.The letter from John Hickenlooper of Colorado to Fed chair Jerome Powell comes after Democratic senator Sherrod Brown earlier this week urged the central bank to exercise caution in its campaign of raising rates to fight America’s high rate of inflation. Brown worried that elevated interest rates would cause layoffs, and undo the gains the labor market has made since Joe Biden took office.The Fed’s bluntest tool is interest rate increases, and it has wielded that hammer repeatedly. However, after five straight rate increases by the Fed, I worry any additional action will undermine economic growth and harm American families. To date, the Fed’s actions have failed to stem inflationary pressure on Americans. As one Nobel Prize winning economist stated, ‘Will raising interest rates lead to more oil, lower prices of oil, more food, lower prices of food? Answer is clearly not. In fact, the real risk is it will make it worse.’ Continue reading...