A new wave of political pressure greeted Fed Chair Jerome Powell as he and his colleagues gathered in Washington this week to discuss the direction of interest rates, and a cooler-than-expected inflation readingWednesday amplified that scrutiny.
From the left, the immediate reaction from Sen. Martin Heinrich, the chair of Congress's Joint Economic Committee, was to proclaim "it’s time" for the Fed to lower rates "before it causes irreparable harm to the US economy."
The sentiment was echoed earlier in the week in the form of two new letters from other liberal lawmakers pushing in the same direction. One letter, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, concluded by telling the central banker, "You have kept interest rates too high for too long."
