When the Federal Reserve raises interest rates — as it did Wednesday — the impact doesn’t stop with U.S. homebuyers paying more for mortgages or Main Street business owners facing costlier bank loans.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday will launch one of the most difficult tasks a central bank can attempt: Raise borrowing costs enough to slow growth and tame high inflation, but not so much as to topple the economy into recession.

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has died.

With employers hiring, consumers spending and companies raising some prices, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is embarking on a high-stakes gamble.

WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden said Thursday that he has decided whom to nominate as his secretary of the Treasury Department. Either would be the first woman to serve as treasury secretary. Both Bostic and Ferguson are Black, and either would be the first Black treasury secretary. Brainard also advised President Bill Clinton and was floated as a potential treasury secretary if Hillary Clinton had won the 2016 election. He says, “They all acknowledge this is going to take a massive education campaign.”Biden’s treasury secretary would lead his economic team as many businesses and Americans struggle while the pandemic continues.

Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was among a team of advisers who briefed Joe Biden on Thursday about the economic fallout from the coronavirus. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and his newly chosen running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, participated in the briefing from separate, socially distanced tables at a hotel in Wilmington, Delaware. Word of Yellen's advising Biden is also significant because Biden's campaign had previously been guarded about who was providing it economic expertise. The group was also joined by the Biden campaign's senior policy advisor, Jake Sullivan. ___Associated Press Economic Writer Martin Crutsinger in New York contributed to this report.