'Silent dissents' reveal growing Fed resistance to Powell's cuts

FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR Jerome Powell downplayed dissenting votes against Wednesday’s decision to lower interest rates again, but a slew of finer details from the meeting revealed just how divided the central bank has become.

- CATARINA SARAIVA

Powell pushed through the quarter percentage point cut not only over the objection of a few voters.A much larger group of regional Fed bank presidents who participated in the debate but weren’t among this year’s voting roster also signaled they opposed the cut.

The fractures could foreshadow what’s to come in 2026, when a new chair may struggle even more than Powell to marshal consensus at the Fed. “It’s very unusual. In my 10-plus years of being involved with the Fed, I haven’t seen this,’ said Patrick Harker, who served as president of the Philadelphia Fed until his retirement in June.