Miran Is Contradicting Himself on the Case for Big Rate Cuts
The newest Fed governor advocated for a very different approach to monetary policy just last year. What gives?
Yesterday and today.
Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Rookie Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran — who’s on loan from his regular job with President Donald Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers — on Monday laid out the theoretical justification for his far-out-of-consensus call for steep and swift rate cuts.
In a speech at the Economic Club of New York, he claimed that the US economy’s “neutral rate” has dropped significantly and that, therefore, current interest rates are unduly restrictive, risking higher unemployment. Does Miran really believe that? Or is he providing a rationalization for the president’s long-desired rate cuts?