Another month, and another interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve on July 26, this time to 5.25 to 5.5 percent, to combat sticky inflation that has beleaguered the U.S. economy since 2021 when consumer inflation first rose above 5 percent annualized in June 2021 to 5.4 percent, up to 7.5 percent by Jan. 2022 immediately prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and peaking at 9.1 percent in June 2022.Since then, as global oil and other markets have stabilized from the Covid recession, economic lockdowns and production halts from 2020 — wherein demand recovered sooner than supply, resulting in the ...