Fed’s Waller calls for December rate cut

A clutch of Federal Reserve bank presidents on Friday aired their discomfort with the US. central bank's decision to cut interest rates this week, even as influential Fed Governor Christopher Waller made the case for more policy easing to shore up a weakening labor market.

- CORRESPONDENT

This yawning divide within the Fed’s policymaking ranks poses a challenge for Jerome Powell in forging a consensus in his final six months as the chair.

While it is not unusual for Fed policymakers to differ on policy, particularly when the economic data is mixed, the frank expression of that disagreement and the explicit focus on what the Fed ought to do at its next meeting, on December 9-10, was striking.

TO CUT OR NOT TO CUT

“[I did not see a need to cut rates this week,” Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan told a banking conference. “I’d find it difficult to cut rates again in December unless there is clear evidence that inflation will fall faster than expected or that the labor market will cool more rapidly.”