Fed rate hike not likely to hurt consumers, UW professors say

Noted: A quarter of one percent is “very, very small,” said James Johannes, director of the Puelicher Center for Banking Education at the UW School of Business. “If this causes capital flows into U.S. financial markets, the price of U.S. assets will go up and interest rates on U.S. assets will go down,” defeating the purpose of raising the rates, Johannes said…. UW professor Mark Ready, academic director of the Hawk Center for Applied Security Analysis, said the rate increase is the beginning of “a very long path toward what looks to be normal.”