Fed stares down rising inflation and a murky path to rate cuts

Since the start of the year, central bankers’ hopes to take pressure off the economy with lower borrowing costs have gotten dimmer and dimmer. Inflation is heating back up, and economists fear the stickiest drivers of rising prices are getting harder to scrub away. The unwelcome surprises now have forecasters eyeing fewer cuts, closer to the end of the year — which would put the Fed squarely in the middle of a heated election season, and possibly inflame a kind of political firestorm central bankers try to avoid.