Free Republic

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve on Wednesday approved a widely anticipated rate cut and signaled that two more are on the way before the end of the year as concerns intensified over the U.S. labor market even as inflation is still in the air. In an 11-to-1 vote signaling less dissent than Wall Street had anticipated, the Federal Open Market Committee lowered its benchmark overnight lending rate by a quarter percentage point. The decision puts the overnight funds rate in a range between 4.00%-4.25%. Newly installed Governor Stephen Miran was the only policymaker voting against the quarter-point move, instead advocating...

Quite apart from the Fed’s rather dovish interest rate cuts — they’re signaling two more quarter point drops after today’s move — one of the things that struck me about today’s announcement is how much the central bank apparently opposes President Trump’s pro-growth economic policies. Mr. Trump’s supply-side tax cuts and deregulation moves are going to boost economic growth while keeping prices low. Already, second-quarter gross domestic product growth has come in at 3.3 percent and the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow is projecting another 3.3 percent in the third quarter. There’s a business and factory capital spending boom going on. And...