Eight years after a devastating recession opened an era of loose U.S. monetary policy, the Federal Reserve was set on Wednesday to raise rates for the first time since 2006, in a sign the world’s largest economy had overcome most of the wounds of the global financial crisis. A decision will be released at 2 p.m. (1900 GMT), with markets prepared for an initial 25 basis point “liftoff” that would move the Fed’s target rate from the zero lower bound to a range of between 0.25 and 0.50 percentage points.