CENTRAL banks are intent on driving the world economy perilously close to a recession. About 90 central banks have raised interest rates this year, and half of them have hiked by at least 75 basis points in one shot. The current quarter will see the biggest rate hikes by major central banks since 1980, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co, and it won’t stop there. “So they need to get rates up more now.”Until recently, it seemed like a no-brainer for the central banks to tighten policy. Central banks all over the world are pushing in the same direction, and that heightens the danger, says Maurice Obstfeld, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.
