The Federal Reserve approved a fourth-straight rate hike of three-quarters of a percentage point on Wednesday as part of its aggressive battle to bring down the white-hot inflation that is plaguing the US economy.Wednesday’s decision, which comes at the end of a two-day policy meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, marks the Fed’s toughest policy move since the 1980s and will likely deepen the economic pain for millions of American businesses and households by pushing up the cost of borrowing even further.The Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank’s policymaking arm, “anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2 percent over time.”Fed watchers may interpret the addition of “over time” to their inflation rate target as dovish, meaning that the Fed may choose to ease away from aggressive rate hikes into smaller, but longer-term increases.In addition, the statement noted that: “In determining the pace of future increases in the target range, the Committee will take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, and economic and financial developments.”This new language could also pave the way for an eventual easing in interest rates as it acknowledges that monetary policy may already be effectively cooling the economy even as economic data, which often operates on a lag, indicates strong growth.Job openings unexpectedly surged in September, indicating there are 1.9 job openings for every available worker."