What would you rather have strong jobs and strong commerce or lower interest rates?

I'm David Brancaccio in New York. If you're looking for a job or a raise, the economy is on your side if you're shopping for a mortgage or

nursing credit cards relief is not in sight at the Central Bank's briefing yesterday.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell surprised no one by not cutting interest rates given persistent inflation.

Marketplace's Nancy Marshall Genser was at the briefing and joins us now, Nancy.

Well, David, if you're looking to borrow money, this is kind of a good news, bad news story.

So I'll give you the bad news first.

Interest rates will stay high for longer.

I asked Chirpal what he would say to people who can't afford the high

rates for things like mortgages and car loans. Powell said the thing that hurts

everybody is inflation and the Fed is keeping borrowing costs high to try to cool demand and

snuff out those high prices. That's what we're doing and we know that it's painful

and inconvenient but the dividends will be paid in the in the law will be very and and progress getting inflation down is just taking longer than he expected

for Fed officials to be confident were on the path to their goal of 2% inflation

so they can start cutting rates.

Okay but some Fed officials have openly speculated about the chance of an interest rate hike.

I didn't hear Powell ruling that out.

Yeah, that's the good news for borrowers.

Powell said a rate increase is unlikely,

and the presumption is the Fed's next move would be to lower interest rates.

Powell would not say, though, how many rate cuts we can expect

this year or when they might start. As always he says it depends on the data.

...