Fed Dissenters Call for Rate Hikes Amid Sustained Inflation

Three Federal Reserve policymakers dissented from the central bank's decision to keep interest rates steady earlier this week, calling for rate hikes to combat sustained inflation.

The Fed held rates at 3.50-3.75 percent for its fifth straight meeting on Wednesday, with three of the committee's 12 members dissenting in favor of a quarter-percentage-point rate hike.

According to one of the dissenters, Beth Hammack, president of the regional Cleveland Fed, 'inflation has been too high for too long.' She added that the longer high inflation persists, the more challenging and costly it can be to bring it back down.

Another dissenter, Neel Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Fed, said he thought it was necessary to 'tighten policy incrementally as we gather more data on the path of inflation and employment.'