The U.S. Federal Reserve will tighten monetary policy at a much faster pace than thought a month ago to tame persistently high inflation, now viewed by economists polled by Reuters as the biggest threat to the U.S. economy over the coming year. Encouraged by apparent lower severity of the Omicron variant, governments and central banks around the world are attempting to push their economies back into some version of normality. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said recently he sees an economy that “functions right through these waves of COVID-19.” Eager instead to control raging inflation, which hit a near 40-year high in December, and further tightening in the labor market, several Fed officials recently signaled interest rate rises are coming very soon. Median forecasts from the Jan. 12-19 Reuters poll showed the Fed raising its key interest rate three times this year, starting in March, to 0.75-1.00% by end-2022, a significant upgrade from two hikes predicted in the December survey. A strong minority, 40 of 86 analysts, expected the central bank to hike at least four times this year, in line with current market pricing. Close Nearly three-quarters of respondents, 37 of 51, predicted the Fed to start reducing the size of its nearly $9 trillion balance…