The Daily Money: Federal Reserve expected to hold interest rates steady today
Happy Wednesday, Daily Money readers. It’s Bailey Schulz here to bring you the day’s top headlines.
It’s Fed Day, which means the central bank will decide whether to push up interest rates past the current range of 5.25% to 5.5% – the highest level in 22 years – or keep them steady.
If the Federal Reserve holds its key interest rate as expected, it would be only the second time in 18 months it declined to hike interest rates. The previous raises were made to tame inflation but have also made it harder for consumers to afford loans and pay off credit cards.
But the Fed may not be done with rate hikes yet. It has kept the door open for at least one more hike before the end of the year.
Follow Paste BN’s live blog on the Fed meeting for the latest.
An election conspiracy theory is spreading unchecked online
There’s a rising conspiracy that as COVID-19 rates climb this year, the Biden administration will reinstate pandemic restrictions and push mail-in ballots to influence the next election.
It’s false. But some social media platforms are allowing it to spread openly, according to a new study from Advance Democracy, a nonpartisan research agency.
Though the claims originated in stories that have already been debunked, social platforms flagged or removed almost none of them during a surge in such posts in the last month, according to the study, which was provided exclusively to Paste BN.
“COVID denialism has proven to be a very powerful uniting force among certain political movements,” said Brian Hughes, associate director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University. “So, it makes sense that, at a time when our political leadership is being selected, these other mobilizing concepts are going to be thrown into the mix as well.”
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🍔 Today's Menu 🍔
Today’s menu includes cheese … and lots of it.
Mexican restaurant chain QDOBA is offering a larger portion of their 3-Cheese Queso side in honor of National Queso Day. Guests visiting any participating QDOBA locations in the U.S. and Canada on Wednesday will get more cheese with the purchase of any entrée.
Guests can use code "DRIP" to access their free large side of queso with the purchase of any entrée at the store, on the app or on the website.
About The Daily Money
Each weekday, The Daily Money delivers the best consumer news from Paste BN. We break down financial news and provide the TLDR version: how decisions by the Federal Reserve, government and companies impact you.