A brace, in football terms, is the achievement of scoring two goals in one game. The word brace also means to “prepare for” or “get ready to”. Building onto this wordplay, the title of this blogpost means to get ready for two big “goals” that are coming up soon, and they are the expected announcement of interest rate hikes by the United States (U.S.) Federal Reserve (28 July early morning Singapore time) and the results of the U.S. second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) (28 July evening Singapore Time). Goal #1: Interest Rate Hikes The U.S. consumer price index (CPI), commonly referred to as the inflation rate, for June 2022 was at a staggering 9.1%, and the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates further to combat the rising inflation. Though the expected 75 basis points (0.75%) hike was bandied about, there were some quarters expecting...