Forward guidance: Using a tool honed during the Great Recession of 2007-09, the Fed offered forward guidance on the future path of interest rates. Initially, it said that it would keep rates near zero "until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events and is on track to achieve its maximum employment and price stability goals." In September 2020, reflecting the Fed's new monetary policy framework, it strengthened that guidance, saying that rates would remain low "until labor market conditions have reached levels consistent with the Committee's assessments of maximum employment and inflation has risen to 2% and is on track to moderately exceed 2% for some time." By the end of 2021, inflation was well above the Fed's 2% target and labor markets were nearing the Fed's "maximum employment" target. At its December 2021 meeting, the Fed's policy-making committee, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), signaled that most of its members expected to raise interest rates in three one-quarter percentage point moves in 2022