US Fed Raises Interest Rates

Available for over a year

America's central bank raises rates to 0.75%, the second rise since the financial crisis. They were cut to almost zero after the economic crisis of 2008. The Chair of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, said the rise was a reflection of confidence. What she did not say - and didn't need to - was that there is a new man coming to the White House, with new economic priorities. Yahoo now says a billion accounts were broken into back in 2013. This is in addition to another hack they told us about in September involving 500 million accounts. The Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Delcy Rodriguez, staged a one-woman protest outside a meeting of South America's Mercosur trade block. Venezuela is president of Mercosur, but Venezuela was not allowed in, because last month Venezuela was expelled by the other members. And, what do you think was the most searched for word or phrase on Google this year? Some major world event perhaps? Brexit? The US election? Donald Trump maybe? Well it was none of those actually. It was in fact a mobile app featuring a cuddly virtual monster called Jigglypuff. Roger Hearing is joined by guests on opposite sides of the Pacific - Shikha Dalmia, Columnist at The Week and Senior Analyst at the Reason Foundation - who is in Detroit, and Suzi Kerr, Climate Change expert, Senior Fellow at the Motu think tank in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo: The Federal Reserve building, Washington DC, US © Alex Segre)