Economist John Coleman, a professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, says the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise its policy interest rate by 75 basis points carries high stakes but Lisa McCormick, an outspoken progressive Democrat, charged that the additional rate change – the fourth rate increase of 2022 – is a gigantic blunder.
“This move shows a callous disregard for the working people who have gone longer than ever without an increase in the federal minimum wage and it underscores my resolve to replace President Joe Biden in the 2024 election,” said McCormick, who announced that she would not support his re-election after he met with the Saudi crown prince who ordered the murder of a Washington Post journalist.
“The Fed’s decision on rate increases is significant, as an error could lead either to rising inflation or a deep recession,” said Coleman.
Coleman, who began his career as a senior economist for the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve, says the central bank needs to cut about 20 percent of the U.S. money supply to avoid additional strain from inflation, which is already at a 40-year high at 9.06%.
“Removing such a large amount of money will require a large and sustained rise in the federal funds rate, which will surely lead to a significant contraction in gross domestic product (GDP),” Coleman said.
The National Bureau of Economic Analysis released the latest data on July 28, showing real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the second quarter of 2022 (table 1), according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP decreased 1.6 percent.
Economics research professor Ellen Meade says the Fed’s goal in its decision is to bring the central bank’s policy rate up to a level it considers to be “neutral,” which it defines as the short-term nominal rate that neither spurs nor restricts economic activity.
At future FOMC meetings, policymakers will continue to hike rates above neutral.
“Chair Powell is likely to tell us that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will hike again in September by another 50 or 75 basis points,” Meade says. “As the Fed increases rates into restrictive territory, they will want to slow the pace of increases as they assess effects on an economy that is already showing signs of slowing. But inflation remains very high – higher than anything we’ve seen since the early 1980s – and the Fed’s primary objective is to move inflation back down toward its 2% objective. I could see them continuing to increase the policy rate until it rises above 4 percent.”
Coleman suggests the difficult path policy makers are facing is somewhat self-inflicted.
“The Fed has a difficult road ahead, but one largely of its own making,” Coleman says, adding that Fed chair Jerome Powell has appeared less concerned than predecessors with inflation and that approach could be costly.
“Ever since Paul Volcker’s tenure as Fed chairman, the Fed has been proactive in trying to get ahead of inflation, which has successfully led to low rates of inflation for the past 40 years,” Coleman says. “Jay Powell seems not to have been concerned with inflation, which encouraged him to err on the side of excessive monetary expansion to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. We are now paying the price of that mistake.”
McCormick said the rate hike will increase unemployment and make spending more difficult for working-class Americans, while doing nothing to temper corporate greed or improve supply chains interrupted by the coronavirus emergency.
“It is the wrong cure for ailments we face and it is going to destroy Democratic hopes for holding a majority in the House and make Biden almost impossible to re-elect,” said McCormick.
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