Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome ‘Too Slow’ Powell lowered interest rates today for the second time this year. The vote at the Fed was 10-2, and the cut was a quarter of a point.
Here’s more from CNBC:
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday approved its second straight interest rate cut, a widely expected move that came despite little recent visibility on the economy due to the government shutdown.
By a 10-2 vote, the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee lowered its benchmark overnight borrowing rate to a range of 3.75%-4%. In addition to the rate move, the Fed announced that it would be ending the reduction of its asset purchases – a process known as quantitative tightening – on Dec 1.
Governor Stephen Miran again cast a dissenting vote, preferring the Fed move more quickly with a half-point cut. Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid joined Miran in dissenting but for the opposite reason – he preferred the Fed not cut at all.
The rate also sets a benchmark for a variety of consumer products such as auto loans, mortgages and credit cards. The reduction came even though the Fed essentially has been flying blind lately on economic data.
Other than the consumer price index release last week, the government has suspended all data collection and reports, meaning such key measures as nonfarm payrolls, retail sales and a plethora of other macro data is unavailable.
I’m sure Trump will be happy for the rate cut, but will wish it was a larger cut AND that it happened earlier this year when he was calling for it.