The Fed Is Playing a Waiting Game on Rate Cuts. The Rules Are Starting to Change
The fixation on interest-rate projections this week obscures a bigger shift inside the Fed in the past year, with bigger implications for the economy.The reason rates are above 5% today is that the world looked different in the summer, when the Fed pushed them to this level. At the time, officials feared inflation might become entrenched at 3% or higher, unacceptably above officials' 2% goal. The only way to bring it down would be through much weaker growth and higher unemployment, which is what