Breaking: Fed Raises Key Interest Rate

This just in: the Federal Reserve Board just raised the federal funds rate to 5.25 percent. This is the 17th consecutive rate hike, and the rate now stands at its highest level in more than five years.

Meanwhile, while Fed chair Ben Bernanke has fun raising interest rates, his predecessor Alan Greenspan has to suffer through jury duty. The full story, after the jump.

A fun little Wonk’d sighting, in this morning’s mailbag:

I was particularly peeved when I awoke this morning, late of course, for my date at 500 Indiana Avenue. The only thing that makes me feel any better about the long, boring day ahead was knowing that even Alan Greenspan reports for jury duty.

Yes, that’s right. The esteemed former chairman of the Federal Reserve. Greenspan and his doting blonde assistant waited in line patiently like everyone else (studying the Financial Times, but I guess that’s implied).

When I arrived in the jurors’ lounge, he had vanished. Perhaps there’s some extra special VIP jurors’ lounge that nobody told me about. I’m going to get to the bottom of this.

Former Fed chairs: they’re just like us. They get stuck with jury duty too. Somehow we doubt that Greenspan will make it on to a panel. But hey, you never know.

Fed Raises Key Rate by a Quarter Point [AP]

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