The Federal Reserve has a big job, keeping the economy running smoothly.

And their main tool for doing that is raising and lowering interest rates.

People have a lot of analogies for this.

Car analogies are especially popular.

When the Fed lowers interest rates, economists say it's like hitting the gas to make the economy

go faster.

Or is raising interest rates is like slamming on the brakes.

Our colleague Nick Timmeros covers the Fed.

And he told us about another analogy.

The boozy punch bowl at a party.

There was a Fed chairman in the 1950s and 60s who said the Fed's job was to take away the

punch bowl just as the party was getting started.

In this case, the boozy punch is low interest rates.

And so if you think of the stimulus that the Fed provides in downturns, you don't want

to leave the punch bowl out too long.

Uh-huh.

It's like you want to get you want to have the punch bowl out long enough so people can

get a little buzz, but not so long that they have a hangover tomorrow.

You've got to kill the party before it gets too wild.

Of course, if you don't like any of those analogies, you can always make up your own.

The one that I was thinking of that I think we should maybe try to like make a thing is

you don't want to give too much sugar to little kids.

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