The Fed's battle to fight inflation could cause more pain than higher prices

Rapidly rising prices have caused economic hardship for millions of Americans. But drastic action to rein in prices could lead to even more pain, including job losses.

Overall prices jumped 7.5% during the last year, according to the January consumer price index reading, the fastest pace in nearly 40 years. The increases have squeezed household budgets for consumers, caused political problems for Joe Biden and resulted in calls for the Federal Reserve to take relatively severe action, such as its first half-percentage-point hike since 2000.

But some economists are cautioning that would be a very bad idea, hurting the people that the battle on rising prices is meant to help.

That's because the main tool available to the Fed to fight inflation — raising interest rates — is designed to curb inflation by slowing what has been a very strong economy.