An article in the Wall Street Journal in June 2023 noted: “After holding the fed-funds rate near zero following the Covid–19 pandemic, the Fed had raised the rate at every meeting since March 2022 by a cumulative 5 percentage points, the most rapid series of increases since the 1980s.”

a. Why had the Fed been increasing its target for the federal funds rate during 2022 and 2023?

b. How would raising the federal funds rate help the Fed deal with the problem you identified in part (a)?