War, pandemic, and inflation deal Federal Reserve a complex triplet

In what now seem the simpler days of December, when there was only a pandemic to worry about, Federal Reserve officials rallied around the view they could tame inflation with modest interest rate hikes while the economy and labor market thrived.
 

A war in Europe has now been layered on top of the health crisis, and when U.S. central bank policymakers meet this week
they will have to decide just how much damage has been done to that rosy outlook, and whether their hopes for an economic "soft landing" have been diminished or dashed altogether.
 

The Fed is almost certain