They dont. Lots of people are struggling with higher prices. Mostly, the price rises are due to other events, like the war, like the tariffs. Putting the rates up doesn’t help that as much as when the economy is overheating, from going ‘too well’. However, they don’t have many levers to pull and interest rates is one big crude one.

They want more people to be struggling, more people to forego buying things and that makes some people even lose their jobs. They then spend even less. However, it does cause companies to reduce prices to compete, or go bust from lack of sales.

Higher interest rates affect Americans less than in other countries where their mortgages are actually linked to the rate. Americans mortgages tend to be fixed for the term. So when rates go up, people have less money, as well as businesses.