High interest rates

Let's go back a few days to June 15th, when Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell went before the cameras to make this announcement. Speaker2: The labor market is extremely tight and inflation is much too high. Some indicators of inflation expectations have risen, and projections of this year have moved up notably. So we thought that strong action was warranted and today we delivered that. And it was strong. The Fed raising its policy interest rate by three quarters of a percent, which is considered a fairly large hike. So what will be the effects of higher interest rates on farmers and agriculture? Speaker3: I'm almost gun shy of making strong predictions in the environment we've been in in the last couple of years. Speaker1: Agriculture Department chief economist Seth Meyers says classic economics would say that in a normal year, normally. Speaker3: Rising interest rates in the United States strengthens the dollar, makes us a little less export competitive. Speaker1: But Meyer says this is not a normal situation. Commodity prices are very high. Demand also continues high in light of the conflict in Ukraine, short global supplies of commodities like wheat and weather, concerns for other crops here in the U.S.