In the wake of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s announcement that the central bank was ready to begin cutting interest rates, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is demanding a 75-basis-point slash.
In a speech on Friday, Powell declared, “The time has come for policy to adjust. The direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks.”
While he did not specifically state when the change would occur, it is widely assumed he was referring to the mid-September meeting of the central bank’s policy making Federal Open Market Committee. Powell also avoided hinting how much of a rate cut could be pursued.
Today, Warren took to X (formerly Twitter) with her own suggestion.
“It’s time for a big cut in interest rates by the Fed — at least 75 basis points,” she tweeted. “Chair Powell already admitted he’s waited too long. Delay puts too many jobs at risk and threatens our entire economy.”
Warren has been a longtime critic of Powell, publicly demanding that he cut the federal funds rate in June while further demanding in July that he return from his summer vacation to enact an emergency rate cut following a weaker than expected jobs report.
To date, Powell has never publicly responded to Warren’s criticism of his work or her suggestions on how he should do his job.
Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr Creative Commons
;
So tired of politicians trying to tell The Fed what to do. Warren needs to have a seat next to Trump and shut the hell up.
Agree 💯 America needs to shut up 🤐 and let China go ahead and take over turn the country Communist so no one has opinions on how things should be run. Let’s give complete control to China now!
To Chey Tor,
You are PARTLY correct. Senator Warren should sit next to Trump, and Trump SHOULD listen to her because she is smart and moral, and he is not.
It amazes me how Maga Republicans fail to see that Trump’s policies harm them too.
He has no policies other than making money for himself and his Billionaire friends.
80% of his massive tax cut benefitted Billionaires ONLY.
I feel sorry for Maga Republicans who fail to see that they are manipulated and harmed by lies. (Some of my middle and upper class relatives who support Trump ended up paid $8,000 to $17,000 more in taxes due to Trump’s massive giveaway to Billionaires).
84 court cases (most under Republican judges) showed NO election fraud in 2020.
In fact, Trump’s lawyers never mentioned in court any claim of election fraud nor election rigging in favor of Biden because they KNEW that lawyers could be sanctioned and punished for totally unsubstantiated allegations (aka lies) inside the court room. But, those lies were told in right wing media outlets because there is no law against lying thru the media.
Republicans demanded recounts in many states and got them, and when the recounts showed that Biden had done even better than the first tally, Republicans and right wing news outlets went silent, and the recounting groups quietly slipped away.
To their credit, many Republicans, including average voters, have woken up and spit out the poisoned Trump kool aid. They are now supporting Kamala. You don’t have to agree with every Democratic Party position (I don’t), but you can agree on decency and good moral behavior.
Biden-Harris policies have benefitted more Red States than Blue States, and those policies have funded job growth, employing millions of people in good paying jobs, and Kamala was the tie breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act because NO Republican voted for it, even though those same Republicans later bragged to their constituients about the investment funding flooding into their Red states (from Democratic policies alone). Unbridled hypocrisy and deception from the cultish followers of Trump.
Hey dummy. 99% of billionaires are supporting Harris because they want to control the economy and profits. Cut out the little guys and tax the middle class into slavery.
How completely ignorant are you??!! It’s people like YOU who have created the mess we now have. Wake up!
Julie please stop regurgitating the Maga republican spin. Warren is not smart but is a socialist who would destroy the US as we know it if she was total control. People that understand that will cross over and elect Trump,
Please don’t spew your Squad nonsense about the Inflation Reduction Act and admit that this experiment has failed and will destroy everything that is great about USA. Long live capitalism
Warren is a superb Senator with an intelligent mind. She could probably run the Fed better than anyone else.
You’re kidding, right? She’s an f-g moron.
You clearly have no knowledge of Senator Warren. It’s easy to judge someone that you have never researched.
Actually, no. She’s a huge joke. She was on CNBC getting an education after saying inflation doesn’t exist and it’s just price gouging and the host debased her and to avoid looking stupid she kept talking over him to avoid getting destroyed further for an absolute lack of knowledge on economics.
🎯🎯🎯
She sure is Heap Big mad about it.
You can’t be serious. She’s a socialist
Dear Kevin,
You said that Warren is a Socialist.
Jeeze, I hope so!
Look at the Scandanavian nations with their Social Democratic policies. Read about them!
Yes, they pay higher taxes, but everyone gets a great and well-funded education (some of the best in the world), and disabled and senior people get good care and financial support so that families are not burdened with lifelong care of loved ones, which allows members of those families to continue to work, to pay taxes, to have a life of their own, and to have quality time to spend with their disabled and senior relatives. That would have been a great thing for our family and for my Down’s Syndrome Sister if our nation had lived its professed “Higher moral Values”,…. values that many other nations actually adopt (kindness, compassion, fairness, actual support for all and funded by all).
I support kindness and fairness. It’s not about what you say you believe, it’s about how you use your beliefs and what you actually support and act upon (not just talk about).
I would much rather pay higher taxes and get secure benefits for all people than the greedy, unfair version of Capitalism in the U.S., which really is just a twisted form of Capitalism, not the real deal, not actual Capitalism, which can work if applied fairly to everyone, which almost never happens, and certainly NOT in the U.S.
In Scandanavian nations, it is much easier to move up to the next higher level (higher income) than in the U.S., mostly because people have universal health care, so they do NOT fear taking a risk on starting a business of their own or taking a job that they actually like because they know that there is a risk in doing that, but at least they will have very affordable and good medical care.
Do you have a problem with capitalism, comrade?
Totally agree with Senator Elizabeth Warren. The Fed should really do a full 1% cut as the housing market is pitiful this season when it should be purrring. The Americans have suffered far too much and far too long.
Joanne L. Gardiner, Broker, CA DRE #00822285
Advantage Realty
Member of Bay East Association of Realtors for more than 43 years.
email: [email protected]
You do realize that lowering the Fed rate has no impact on residential mortgages, right? Residential mortgages are pegged to the 10 yr Treasury, NOT the Fed rate.. Credit Cards, Auto Loans, HELOC’s and commercial loans are impacted by the Fed rate.. You’re a Real Estate Broker and don’t know this??
You’re wrong. Lots of variable mortgages are based on the prime rate, which is usually 3 points over the fed funds rate, not the t bill rate.
🎯🎯
Elizabeth Warren, like Kamala Harris and the rest of the Dems, is directly responsible for the historically high inflation that required aggressive monetary tightening by the Fed. The Biden-Harris Dem’s Inflation Acceleration Act and other big spending measures, coupled with their “green” restrictions on energy supplies, have been a disaster for the USA.
With the election near and Americans suffering from the horrendous Dem policies, including record high high inflation, rising unemployment and a slowing economy, Warren, Harris, et al are falsely blaming Powell and others for the Dem’s economic failures.
Warren sounds like the arson blaming the fire department for the fire she lit.
Realtors should be supporting Senator Warren and her calls to lower interest rates, which would help all Americans.
The Feds did not control inflation soon enough and allowed interest rates to stay way too low for too long, and then they raised interest rates way too fast, and many sellers were harmed when their home values dropped suddenly, yet, despite many home prices falling, Buyers still had to pay higher mortgage payments due to the higher interest rates! The Feds managed to pull off a double, one, two punch to the head and gut against both sellers and buyers! WOW!
The Feds should have raised interest rates at a slower pace and then lowered them as inflation eased off and before they hit 7%. Senator Warren is correct in her criticism of the Feds because their inaction and then too harsh of actions and then their delays now in lowering interest rates is harming most people.
There are many other ways to control inflation. Many years ago, Israel did a remarkable job of controlling their runaway inflation (400%) thru a mixture of policies, such as negotiated price control agreements and wage control agreements, and it worked really well. The Feds could use more than a hammer to pound down inflation, but they did not, and that deserves to be criticised, especially because the U.S. was part of the assistance to Israel’s inflation reduction policies. It seems the Feds forgot about many good ideas that worked.
Israel? Why don’t we stop paying them out hard earned money and let them fend for themselves… Israel you say? Why is a foreigner allowed to speak to congress? Oh I forgot all the unelected congress men/woman have dual citizens of the “ state “ of Israel (ps: their own private gated communities funded by we the people here in America) (Ukraine too)
Why does she demand it now? Democracy =s Socialism AND Communism
The election year is upon us and the big government ship is sinking …so those who do not understand politics may think this is great.. refinance at a lower rate.. only they do not see it’s another avenue for central banks and politicians to make money. Do away with the FED period!
Here is one link to Israel’s success in reducing their runaway inflation in the 1980’s.
Many tools were used, not just one too. The Feds should revisit the many inflation solutions policies that other nations have successfully used.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-shimon-peres-saved-the-israeli-economy/
There are so many people commenting on this. Inflation is still high and the prices need to come down. Not the rates the prices need to come down for everything. The rates need to stay up until the prices come down
Another democrat trying to pretend to understand how the economy works. The only thing democrats know how to do is tax and aimlessly spend. They literally cannot solve problems and only create new ones with crime, illegal immigration, homelessness, drugs, etc. Threat to democracy: They weaponize the judicial system, control the media, manipulate search engines and social media, cause wars, perpetuate a completely fake foreign entity collusion investigation, talk about stacking the supreme court, try to impeach a president to prevent candidacy, attempt to buy votes via paying student loans and legalizing illegal immigrants, and their rhetoric causes assassination attempts. They’re a CONSISTENT THREAT to the entire fabric of this country and our entire democracy while claiming the guy AGAINST all of it is the one to fear.
I’m frustrated too. Inflation is everyone’s enemy. It’s still going on. However, one big reason for the fed in the 1st place was to get the money supply out of the hands of politicians.
I think people are forgetting that Inflation has resulted in large part for 2 reasons that I have seen.
Global Trade put the U.S. dependent upon foreign nations, and the global supply chain, is disrupted at various times of war or global pandemics. Many businesses made far higher profits because of the shortages when Covid hit and when the Ukraine war caused oil disruption. The extreme profits since 2020 meant that many businesses did not want to return to normalized supplies and lower prices.
And the decades long push by corporations to create “Just in Time” production (mostly overseas production) only means lower costs for big business who don’t need to store as much supply here in the U.S., but it puts the consumer at very high risk and high prices when that supply chain is disrupted, even if just for a week, such as when a big ship gets itself stuck in the Suez Canal, blocking all other shipping traffic.
The other price increase of national significance is housing. But few people discuss how huge investor pools were buing up 20% of available housing stock over the past few years (since 2019) and that absolutely pushed prices higher for regular home buyers.
Those same huge investment groups were also buying up large blocks of rental properties, also driving up rent prices.
I would like to see limits on investor owned homes, at least until home and rental prices are more affordable. Yes, investment in homes and rentals should still be allowed, especially for small investors, but not so much of it for large scale investors, especially when housing affordability is so high.
Under Biden-Harris, U.S. manufacturing has increased dramatically because of Democraticly led policies that were passed only by the Democrats. Green energy is the global trend, and its a good trend because it is now more affordable than many fossil fuel sources (coal). And, if we took away the fossil fuel subsidies, green energy would be even more affordable. You can’t get rid of fossil fuels entirely, and not yet. But we can move to greener alternatives at larger scales.
When the Heritage Foundation (policy advisor for Republicans) pushed through global trade policies (1970’s onward), they managed to achieve their goal of moving manufacturing jobs out of the U.S. and into China and other 2nd and 3rd world nations.
They did that to lower the labor costs and to avoid environmental laws that most foreign nations lack. Ronald Reagan, Bush Sr., Bush II, and Republicans pushed through legislation that meant Americans lost good paying manufacturing jobs.
NAFTA was passed with majority Republicans (Democrats mixed but overall the Dems voted against NAFTA, look it up in the Congressional vote count).
NAFTA also cost American jobs that went to Mexico and other nations.
Since that time, China’s production has boomed, and China is on the heals of power next to the U.S. However, U.S. products made in China resulted in massive labor abuses and even worse environmental damages, from highly polluted air to half the waters of China destroyed and polluted, including the Seas off China that support huge numbers of people with seafood. We like to blame China for its climate impacts, but that is due in large part to massive amounts of U.S. products being made in China.
Kamala and Democratic policies are bringing good paying jobs home, and the supplies will be more local with more stable pricing and much more reliable supply chains.
That’s a good thing.
Jason Dean has an excellent point, and one that I was asking when lending rates on home loans shot up every time the Feds raised their lending rate. And that is NOT supposed to happen, but IT DID! Why were lenders allowed to do that when the Fed lending rate is not tied directly to the home loan interest rate?
NAR should have been filing lawsuits against lenders about that. They seemed occupied with the compensation lawsuits.
I find it very weird that NAR had to settle that lawsuit by removing the buyer compensation from MLS systems. Sellers filed that lawsuit claiming they were victims of fixed commission rates, but the reality is that Sellers have never paid the commissions. Only Buyers bring the money (down payment and loan money). Out of that Buyer side funding the commissions are paid out to both sides, the escrow fees of the Seller are paid out of that Buyer pool of funds, and even the Seller credits back to the Buyer are paid out of the Buyer pool of funds.
If anyone had a lawsuit to file, it should have been buyers because they were never allowed to negotiate the listing contract that promised both agents a certain commission rate, yet all the money comes from the buyer to pay those commissions.
The accounting has misled everyone because the Seller statement shows the commissions as if they came from buyer funds, but those buyer funds were never the Sellers until all other costs were paid off OUT of the BUYER’S FUNDS!
I digress. Buyers should pay their own agents and Sellers should pay their own agents, and lenders should allow the buyer commission cost to be included in the total loan, which is how it has been done anyway when you think about it. The Buyers funds (downpayment & loan) are sent to escrow and escrow portions out some for the agent commissions. The accounting should show the Buyer paying their own agent, ditto for Seller.
The interest rates have indeed killed the real estate market and allow homes to fall as much as 10% and South Florida to 30% in Joshua tree and the Hi Desert areas… this is all truth do the research …
Does everyone here understand that the NAR lawsuit started with sexual harassment?
Look it up!
Somehow it flipped into buyer agency fee lawsuits…
Look here not there!
Also, all the investors for housing were funded by the government .. yes, Warren voted in favor of it all…look at the outcome.. high rent unaffordable.
To me… as a tax payer… where is our cut of the profits they make now.. seeing the investors/politicians are getting rich of our hard work and using our true legit way of earning a living… yeah, we are their slaves!
These politicians sold America to their New World Order puppets.
Every comment on here is proof people are low info! It’s been one big PONZI scheme since 1971 when they took the dollar off the gold standard – it’s backed by nothing! Fed is a joke, a private, independently owned bank & nothing federal about it at all! Our fiat currency is backed by nothing. Those banksters have been scamming us since 1913, doing a great job keeping the masses enslaved.
We will get Warren’s favored rate cuts, but incrementally, which I think is wiser than anything dramatic. And BTW Florida, states like mine, Ohio, whose appreciation has been consistently more incremental than yours, have not been drastically damaged by Powell’s strategy to control inflation. Affected, yes, damaged, no. I am a Warren fan, if not for her we might not have the CFBA, but in her enthusiasm to benefit consumers she has perhaps gone a bit overboard with this one.
Where has she been for the past several years? So, this is now an emergency due to the market optics 70 some days before the election?
How do you rates when the economy is doing so good? According to them. They just lied about the jobs created. GDP up 3% or is that a lie? Who’s lying? Is the rate cut political?