The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday, Sept. 20, edition that the United States Federal Reserve is confronting a familiar nemesis as it tries to pilot the economy into a rarely seen soft landing: rising oil prices. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post reports that surging energy costs played a role in tipping the U.S. into recession in the mid-1970s, as well as the early 1980s and 1990s, as they drove up inflation and robbed consumers of purchasing power. Driven by cutbacks in supply by Saudi Arabia and Russia, oil prices have surged by almost 30 per cent since June. Though prices are still well below 2022 highs, the latest rise poses risks as the Fed seeks to return inflation to its 2-per-cent target without triggering an economic downturn. Moody's Analytics economist Mark Zandi says: "The run-up in oil prices is at the very tip top of my worries at this point. Anything over $100 (U.S.) for any length of time and we're going to be very sick." After boosting interest rates by more than five percentage points over the last 18 months, Fed chairman Jerome Powell and his colleagues are widely expected to hold them steady at their two-day meeting starting Tuesday.