When inflation is high and the economy is in overdrive, the Fed tries to pump the brakes by discouraging borrowing. It does this by setting higher interest rates and decreasing the money supply. Since March 2022, the Fed raised the federal funds rate 11 times, which helped slow down record-high price growth.

Market pricing shows investors are nearly unanimous in expecting the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by 0.25 percentage point on Thursday, to a range of 4.5% to 4.75%. Here's a look at how the central bank has steered policy since the turn of the century,