all of us know the suffering that is taking place as we speak. all of us are determined to see it end. but all of us know the imperative of standing up with our allies and partners when their security, when their democracies are threatened. that s secretary of state antony blinken laying out the difficult balance of standing with israel in its war against terrorists while also supporting the protection of innocent pal palestinians in gaza. it comes as an israeli rocket strike hit the largest refugee camp killing dozensens of people. we ll have the latest out of the middle east in just a moment. plus, the director of the fbi is warning that the hamas terror attacks could inspire extremists here at home, calling it the greatest threat to the united states since the height of isis. and also ahead, the white house is rejecting an israel-only aid plan from house republicans. we ll take a look at where that funding fight could be headed. good morning, and welcome to way too
the economy. first to that question. it s an effort to stem inflation. will it work? neil: it s the only game in town if you think about it. the federal reserve, more government spending isn t going to cure this. many argue we re in the position we re in because we ve been spending like crazy. that was before the war in ukraine and everything else. leaving that aside, the federal reserve seems to be doing what people thought it would. its hiking interest rates half a percentage point. we haven t seen a move like that since 2000 if you think about it when bill clinton was president. the idea seems to be jerome powell talks to the press about this that more hikes are on the way. they re okay with that because the hikes even though they seem to be fairly dramatic, another half point now, another half point presumably at the next fed meeting next months, maybe successive hikes after that, interest rates could go up quickly from here.
record pace because they feel so good about getting another one and now we have a sobering reminder of the fact that covid is not over and the economy remains inextricably linked to the variant and the real risks here are, one, what does this do to inflation? jerome powell talks about this. it creates uncertainty. prices are high which makes it unclear when prices come back down and the other thing this could slow the job market recovery because people are worried about going back to work, they are scared and there s not enough workers and the other big thing is the supply chain. if there s not enough workers then the supply chain stress will only get worse. these are difficult matters they have to sort out right now and then you have the inflation front. a really interesting back and forth with powell and pat doom toomey, the republican republican senator where he could have called out powell for transitory and he says, listen, life is transitory.