Obama Could Be The First U.S. President To Never See A Fed Rate Hike

Could Obama be the first U.S. president to never see a Fed rate hike? The Fed announced today that it would forgo raising shorting term interest rates, a story that’s been told since September 2007 (August 2007 if you’re using the effective Federal Funds rate). Here’s a look at the Federal Funds effective rate over the past 10 loosening cycles, labeled by when the loosening cycle started according to the effective federal funds rate. (As a note: a loosening cycle is when the Federal Reserve consistently lowers short-term interest rates through the use of its Federal Funds target rate.) Perhaps…