The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Aug. 24, edition that a year ago, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said the Fed would continue to sharply raise interest rates, bringing "some pain" in the form of job losses and weaker economic growth. An Associated Press dispatch to The Globe reports that yet so far, broadly speaking, not much pain has arrived. Hiring has remained healthy, confounding legions of economists who had forecast that the spike in rates would cause widespread layoffs and a recession. The unemployment rate is near a half-century low. Consumer spending keeps growing at a healthy rate. Long-time Fed-watcher David Beckworth says: "The economy seems to be humming along well, inflation is coming down. It seems more and more likely that we'll have higher growth and higher interest rates going forward." AP says one after another, economists have postponed or reversed their earlier forecasts for a U.S. recession. AP adds that optimism that the Fed will pull off a difficult "soft landing" has risen. Nearly seven in 10 economists polled by the National Association for Business Economics say they are at least somewhat confident the Fed will achieve a soft landing.