US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen had to walk back comments about interest rates on May 4. Speaking at a public event hosted by The Atlantic, Yellen said that stimulus spending “could cause some very modest increases in interest rates” to avoid inflationary pressures.

“It may be that interest rates will have to rise somewhat to make sure that our economy doesn’t overheat, even though the additional spending is relatively small relative to the size of the economy,” she said.

She added that the