there was a time when the federal reserve’s policy pronouncements were relatively rare consisting mainly of congressional testimony by its chair whose comments often provided more obfuscation than illumination and not unintentionally in contrast jerome powell the current fed leader was plainspoken this past week in discussing where he sees monetary policy going at his news conference on wednesday following the official announcement of the widely expected 75basispoint 075 of a percentage point increase in the key federalfunds target range he made it clear that the path is upward “we still have some ways to go and incoming data since our last meeting suggest that the ultimate level of interest rates will be higher than previously expected” he declared