Wanted: A Steady Hand for This Economy

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is in a pickle. Economists are warning that it’s dangerous for the Fed to further cut U.S. interest rates when there are few blaring signs of U.S. economic weakness. But financial market participants — and the American president — are jawboning Powell for more rate reductions to juice economic growth. It’s awkward.

Jim Bianco sides with the market, and says Powell should “do nothing less than signal that a more aggressive approach to easier monetary policy is warranted.” There’s no use waiting for a recession, Jim says, to deploy the Fed’s recession-fighting weapons.