Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman has maintained her stance on cutting interest rates, stating that she has not changed her opinion after dissenting from the rest of the Fed board in July about the need for a rate cut. Bowman and fellow Federal Open Market Committee member Christopher Waller became the first pair of Fed governors in 30 years to dissent jointly from the majority opinion after the committee voted in July to keep interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.5%. The dissents followed a massive pressure campaign from the White House over the past several months to lower interest rates, which saw Fed board of governors member Adriana Kugler step down from her position earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Futures markets are currently predicting a quarter-point rate cut in September, but there is more uncertainty in those markets than usual. The CME Fed Watch prediction algorithm shows an 83% chance of a cut next month, which is usually within just a few percentage points of a consensus forecast. The relative degree of uncertainty is due to the fact that prices have been rising in recent months and the unemployment rate is at a low 4.2%. The combination of higher prices and lower unemployment is traditionally more inflationary than stagnant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n