Here's What 7 Years at Zero Rates Have Looked Like

The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates on Wednesday, exactly seven years after the central bank cut them to almost zero in response to the deepest recession in the post-World War II era. As this unprecedented era of easy monetary policy closes, here's a walk through seven years at zero to highlight the obstacles that policy makers navigated to restore labor-market health and enable liftoff.

Fed officials lowered the federal funds rate into a 0 to 0.25 percent range in December 2008 as the nation's economic state deteriorated and the collapse of Lehman Brothers sent shock-waves through global financial markets. The Fed "will employ all available tools to promote the resumption of sustainable economic growth and to preserve price stability," officials said in their post-meeting statement.