Herding cats
Welcome to the Know the Difference Minute for Wednesday, July 26th. 
Surprising no one, the Federal Reserve’s policy setting body, the Federal Open Market Committee, hiked its target for the federal funds rate 0.25 percentage points. The decision was so well telegraphed that they probably should have saved their time and effort by just phoning it in instead of actually meeting in person.
The one thing that was surprising in the Fed’s statement was that it said economic growth was moderate. Last time they said it was modest. In Fed-speak moderate is faster than modest, so it’s a bit of a head-scratcher as to what data they’re looking at.
The big disagreement within the Federal Reserve isn’t about today’s move, but about whether there’s more to come, or, if this is good enough. Coming to a unanimous conclusion at the next meeting in September, or maybe at the following one in November, could be like herding cats.
I’m Brian Jacobsen, Chief Economist at Annex Wealth Management.  That is your Know the Difference Minute.