Elizabeth Warren calls for emergency-like Fed rate cut ASAP

The American economy appears to be just hours away from a major milestone: The first interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve since Covid. Yet there remains an unusual amount of drama over the magnitude of that rate cut, with some in Washington calling for a supersized move.

The American economy appears to be just hours away from a major milestone: The first interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve since Covid. Yet there remains an unusual amount of drama over the magnitude of that rate cut, with some in Washington calling for a supersized move. Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants the Fed to slash interest rates at a pace rarely seen outside of a full-blown crisis. In a letter to Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Monday, Warren and two Senate colleagues urged the US central bank to dramatically lower interest rates by three-quarters of a point at this week’s monetary policy meeting. “Given the Fed’s confidence in inflation moving towards its target of 2 percent and data indicating slower job growth, now is the time to swiftly move forward with rate cuts,” Warren wrote in the letter, which was also signed by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and John Hickenlooper. Wall Street investors are pricing in virtually no chance of a rate cut of this magnitude, nor have any major Fed officials voiced support for a move like this. Yet Warren, a fierce critic of Powell, warns that the Fed is unnecessarily damaging the job market by holding rates at two-decade highs for so long.