Editor's note: This explainer was first published on Dec. 16, 2015.

Near the height of the recession, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to almost zero to try to nurse the ailing economy back to health. It was not until seven years later, on Dec. 16, 2015, that the Fed decided the economy could handle a rate increase. The goal is to prevent excessive inflation from breaking out in the future.

But what does it even mean when people talk about “raising rates,” and how does it actually affect the economy? It turns out they’re talking about an intricate series of events affecting everything from how many people have a job to what they pay for groceries. It’s kind of like a Rube Goldberg machine, those incredibly complicated devices built to accomplish a simple task. So we built one to explain what happens when the Fed raises rates.