The most common news to come out of the Federal Reserve is the result of FOMC meetings and changes to the Federal Funds Rate. Jerome Powell has made news with his aggressive rate hikes that some fear will topple the economy. However, how they raise and change the Federal Funds Rate has changed over time. If one is to offer proper analysis of the Fed’s actions, we must be able to properly understand what its tools are, and how they have changed over time. The fitting target to observe is the Federal Funds Rate above.

In response to the many shortcomings of the Soviet Union, Mao Zedong’s China, and Venezuela, the refrain, “It wasn’t real socialism,” has emerged as a rallying cry among apologists of socialism. Some readily admit the failures of these regimes and attribute the failures to capitalism rather than socialism. Some refuse to recognize the failure whatsoever; they see these experiments as genuine instances of “real socialism” and perceive them to be unequivocal successes.

According to a new report from the federal government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics last Friday, the US economy added 353,000 jobs for the month of January while the unemployment rate held at 3.7%.