U.S. Union Chief Cautions Fed Against ‘Rashly’ Raising Rates

The Federal Reserve should be careful to avoid raising interest rates too aggressively so as not to harm the jobs recovery, according to the head of the largest trade-union federation in the U.S.

“We’re concerned and we’re watching it very closely,” Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, said in a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg News editors and reporters on Thursday in Washington. She likened the moment to the 1970s, when persistent inflation spurred the central bank to sharply raise borrowing costs, which sent the economy into a recession.