For months, the outlook for the U.S. economy has been a mostly bleak one: Inflation hitting a four-decade high, consumer spending weakening, interest rates surging.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday will launch one of the most difficult tasks a central bank can attempt: Raise borrowing costs enough to slow growth and tame high inflation, but not so much as to topple the economy into recession.

– With unemployment still high and the pandemic threatening yet another economic slump, President-elect Joe Biden is assembling a team of liberal advisers who have long focused on the nation’s workers and government efforts to address economic inequality. Biden also selected Wally Adeyemo to be Yellen’s deputy, which would make him the first Black deputy treasury secretary. “They’re fairly conventional liberal economists and experts.”Still, the Biden administration’s ambitious goals will face solid opposition from Republicans in Congress. She first made her mark in the Clinton orbit, and served as policy director for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential race. Bernstein has also worked as a social worker and was an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-supported think tank.

The Fed's Main Street Lending is geared toward medium-sized companies that are too large for the government's small business lending program and too small to sell bonds or stock to the public. Powell noted that the complexity of the program goes far beyond the Fed's usual lending efforts, which typically involve buying bonds. It is far and away the biggest challenge of the 11 facilities we have set up, Powell said. It has also announced 11 separate lending programs that are intended to support borrowing by businesses, banks and households. Still, Powell has previously said the unemployment rate is likely to peak at between 20% and 25% in May or June.