“Resilience is a good thing in many ways, but it’s also something that makes things harder for the Federal Reserve and it hardens their resolve,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG, the accounting firm.Understand Inflation and How It Affects YouThere are some hints that consumers may at last be reaching their limits. Americans have been saving less and using credit cards more in recent months as pandemic-era savings dry up. Retail sales have fallen for two straight months, and a big buildup of inventories in the fourth quarter suggests that many businesses may have sold less during the holiday season than they expected.“You can start to see the cracks here,” said Brett Ryan, senior economist at Deutsche Bank.In some corners of the economy, those cracks are more like fissures. Housing, in particular, has been battered by rapidly rising interest rates. Residential construction activity contracted at an annual rate of 26.7 percent …
