After three years of historically low interest rates designed to nurse the economy through pandemic recovery, the Federal Reserve has chosen Wednesday to begin tightening its grip — raising rates for the first time since that era began. The decision arrives as diesel fuel prices set their eighth consecutive record high, a signal that inflation has not waited for permission to spread. Policymakers are now wagering that making money more expensive to borrow will cool the fever of rising prices before it does lasting damage to the broader economy.