At the December 10 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, I dissented on the decision to cut the federal funds rate. While I voted to lower rates at the September and October meetings, I believe we should have waited to get more data, especially about inflation, before lowering rates further. Waiting to take this matter up in the new year would not have entailed much additional risk and would have come with the added benefit of updated economic data which have been absent lately. Given that inflation has been above our target for four and a half years, further progress on it has been stalled for several months, and ... (full story)

Chicago Federal Reserve president Austan Goolsbee said Friday that his vote against the Federal Reserve's decision to lower interest rates this week resulted from his preference to wait for more data on inflation before another cut. “Waiting to take this matter up in the new year would not have entailed much additional risk and would have come with the added benefit of updated economic data which have been absent lately,” Goolsbee said in a statement. Goolsbee added he remains “optimistic” rates can come down a “significant amount” over the next year. Goolsbee has repeatedly said he’s uneasy about too heavily ... (full story)