Dissent at the Fed meeting: For the second time this year, the Federal Reserve Board cut interest rates by a quarter point—the lowest level in three years. "This remains a very divided Fed, as evidenced by the fact that two officials cast dissenting votes in opposite directions," reports The New York Times. "One wanted a bigger, half-point cut; another wanted no cut at all. The split stems not only from divergent forecasts about the economy but also risk tolerances around allowing the labor market to weaken or inflation to stay elevated."
This is consistent with the previous meetings: Back at July's meeting, two board members disagreed with the final decision to hold rates steady. At September's meeting, President Donald Trump appointee Stephen Miran—who had just been appointed—called for a half-point cut instead of a more cautious quarter-point cut (like the rest of the board agreed to). Then in this meeting, Miran said much the same, but was opposed by Jeffrey Schmid, who advocated no decrease at all.
