Fed set to end rate increases

Not being a superstitious lot, Federal Reserve officials will gather on 13 December, and for the thirteenth meeting in a row, to raise their target for the overnight lending rate by a quarter percentage point. And they will signal they are going for 14 at the end of next month. At some point in the first half of 2006, the remarkable string of quarter-point increases that began in June 2004 will come to an end. There is no sign that will occur this week or next month. The action will lift the overnight rate target to 4.25, 325 basis points above the 1% level 19 months ago. (A basis...