US Federal Reserve is right to raise interest rates, yet risk remains

A major employment boost and hourly wages rising suggest this is the time to act, but the US economy is not free of problems

Janet Yellen's finger is poised over the button. The US Federal Reserve will finally take the plunge and raise interest rates when it meets again just before Christmas. The days when borrowing costs were kept at zero are coming to an end.

That was the interpretation Wall Street was putting on Friday's news that the world's biggest economy created 271,000 extra jobs in October and, barring a big domestic or global crisis in the next month or so, it is almost certainly the correct one.

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