> Interest rates make things requiring financing (cars, homes, stuff bought on credit) more expensive and out of reach.
This is complex.
Lower interest rates overall increase home prices, because people buy the biggest home they can afford on a monthly payment.
There are many kinds of cars. Some are cheap and some are expensive.
Anyway, how do interest rates make things like food and gas more expensive and out of reach? Those don't require financing. They're hugely impactful on inflation. You can be the Fed, and pretend there's a "core" CPI, but the people who make your clothes and cars need food and gas, your clothes are made with a lot of gasoline directly, via shipping and manufacturing, etc., so it is sort of a fiction that there is this non-food-and-gas CPI.
This is complex.
Lower interest rates overall increase home prices, because people buy the biggest home they can afford on a monthly payment.
There are many kinds of cars. Some are cheap and some are expensive.
Anyway, how do interest rates make things like food and gas more expensive and out of reach? Those don't require financing. They're hugely impactful on inflation. You can be the Fed, and pretend there's a "core" CPI, but the people who make your clothes and cars need food and gas, your clothes are made with a lot of gasoline directly, via shipping and manufacturing, etc., so it is sort of a fiction that there is this non-food-and-gas CPI.