Restrain

Anna Vavruska and her husband would like to sell the home they purchased in the Sunnyside neighborhood at the start of the pandemic. But that would require a trade-off they aren’t willing to accept — a much higher mortgage payment. “Since we had a child, we definitely have thought about leaving central Denver, but it is not a good time. Even though we have equity in our home, we would still need to take on another mortgage,” Vavruska said. Instead of a 3% mortgage rate that now makes for a manageable monthly payment, they…

WASHINGTON—Governments fighting inflation should limit spending increases to programs focused on helping the poor, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday, as surging food and energy prices create hardships worldwide.Such measures could include discounts on utility bills and allowances for school meals and public transportation, limited to low-income households, said IMF economists in their latest report on global fiscal conditions. Policy makers should refrain from adopting price controls, subsidies or tax cuts…

WASHINGTON—The U.S. and its allies are searching for ways to limit further surges in global oil prices, attempting to balance efforts to cut off Russia’s revenue from its energy sales while shielding the global economy from a possible recession.Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said this week that the U.S. was involved in “extremely active” talks with European allies about efforts to form a buyers’ cartel and set a cap on the price of Russian oil. A goal in the talks is to keep Russian oil…