Eighteen months into the pandemic, Jerome H. Powell offered the clearest sign yet that the Federal Reserve is prepared to soon withdraw one leg of the support it’s been providing to the economy as conditions strengthen. But the Fed chair made clear that interest rate increases remain far away, and that the central bank is closely watching risks posed by Delta.The Fed has been trying to bolster economic activity by buying $120 billion in government-backed bonds each month, helping to keep many kinds of borrowing cheap, and officials are actively debating when to begin slowing those purchases. They have …
