Fed sought 'flexiblity' in 50bps cut: Fmr. Boston Fed president
The Federal Reserve has officially kicked off its rate-easing cycle as it initiated its first interest rate cut in four years at its September meeting. Eric Rosengren, the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, joins Market Domination to discuss the move and the economic outlook as rates continue to ease. "The chair [Jerome Powell] at the press conference highlighted that there was information that they got after the July meeting that probably made them think that maybe it would have been better to do the first cut in July. And that is the payroll employment has been coming in a little bit weaker, with particularly the revisions of the last payroll employment number was 142,000, but the previous two months had gotten significantly revised." "And I think what that made clear to many people on the committee was that they needed to start pivoting from being primarily concerned about inflation and being a little bit more concerned that they didn't allow the labor market to slow down too much," Rosengren tells Yahoo Finance. He believes that the 50-basis-point cut gave the Fed some flexibility to loosen monetary policy and recalibrate rates for a slowing economy while ensuring that unemployment does not rise further. As the Fed continues to ease rates, Rosengren would like to see two 25-basis-point cuts this year followed by a total of 100 basis points over the course of 2025. With that cadence, he believes the fed funds rate can fall to 3.5%. For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination. This post was written by Melanie Riehl
