If you want to know why the Federal Reserve refuses to budge from their hawkish inflation bias, all you have to do is look at the price of oil. Crude prices have increased over 15 percent in the past week and 30 percent since January. This rapid move has sent traders scrambling to adjust their interest rate expectations because up until last week, the market had been anticipating a rate cut by the Federal Reserve as early as June due to the escalating problems in the subprime lending sector. However, no one expected the Iran conflict to reach the level that it did when they gained the upper hand by capturing 15 ... (full story)