, Columnist
Jobs Report Should Put a Jumbo Fed Rate Cut on the Table
A rapid rise in the unemployment rate threatens to knock down consumer and business confidence, creating a negative feedback loop.
It’s beginning to look grim out there.
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In markets and economics, you sometimes have to hold two thoughts in your head simultaneously — an important lesson on a day in which the US unemployment rate unexpectedly surged to its highest in nearly three years.
First, the labor market probably isn’t quite as imperiled as the main figure suggests. Second, the speed at which it’s cooling ratchets up the risks, and Federal Reserve policymakers should at least entertain the possibility that they’ll need to cut rates by 0.5 percentage point when they meet next in September.