The Federal Reserve’s hotly-anticipated March 22 interest rate decision is just a week and a half away, and the drama that swept the banking and financial sector over the weekend is drastically shaking up expectations for what the central bank will deliver.The Fed had been raising interest rates rapidly to try to contain the most painful burst of inflation since the 1980s, lifting rates to above 4.5 percent from near zero a year ago. Concern about rapid inflation prompted the Fed to make four consecutive three-quarter point increases last year before slowing to a half point in December and a quarter point in February.Before this weekend, investors had seen a substantial chance that the Fed would make a half point increase at its meeting next week. That step up was seen as an option because job growth and consumer spending have proven surprisingly resilient to higher rates — prompting Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chai …
