Fed's Miran: Cutting interest rates again in December would be 'a reasonable action'
- - Fed's Miran: Cutting interest rates again in December would be 'a reasonable action'
Jennifer SchonbergerNovember 5, 2025 at 9:29 PM
3
Newly appointed Federal Reserve governor Stephen Miran said Wednesday he thinks it "would still be a reasonable action" for the Fed to continue cutting interest rates, including at its last meeting of the year on Dec. 9-10.
Miran, in an interview on Yahoo Finance, cited earlier policy projections calling for three rate cuts in 2025.
"The natural question that would follow from that is: Has anything changed?" he said.
Acknowledging the lack of official economic data due to the government shutdown, Miran said that inflation has come in below expectations and the labor market continues to trend steadily.
The Fed voted to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point last week, bringing the target range to 3.75%-4%. Miran dissented — as he also did in the September meeting — preferring a jumbo half-point cut.
His goal, he said, is to get to a neutral policy stance — a level designed to neither spur nor slow growth.
The key difference between him and his colleagues at the Fed? "I want to get there faster than everybody else," Miran said. "It's not that the destination is really all that different."
Read more: How the Fed rate decision affects your bank accounts, loans, credit cards, and investments
Federal Reserve governor Stephen Miran speaks during the Semafor World Economy Summit Fall Edition at Gallup HQ on Oct. 16, in Washington, D.C. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Semafor ) (Paul Morigi via Getty Images)
Since last week's policy meeting, a growing chorus of Fed officials has expressed concerns about inflation and reservations about cutting rates again in December.
Chicago Fed president Austan Goolsbee said on Yahoo Finance that he is undecided about a December cut. Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook and San Francisco Fed president Mary Daly echoed similar sentiments in separate speeches on Monday. Kansas City Federal Reserve president Jeff Schmid said he favored no rate cut at last week's policy meeting.
That appears to make Miran something of an outlier in pushing for further cuts.
"Anything can happen between now and December. There could be new information, there could be surprises, there could be shocks. Things that we don't expect could occur," he said. "But barring new information that would make you really change your forecast a lot, I would think it would ... still be a ... sort of consistent, reasonable action ... to continue on the path that we've been on."
A new reading on private sector job data Wednesday has not changed the picture of the job market for Miran.
Payroll processing firm ADP found that job growth rebounded in October, with 42,000 jobs created last month, compared with a contraction of 29,000 jobs in September.
Miran called the data a “welcome surprise,” but noted in the context of the overall jobs picture, it appears to him that pre-existing trends from before the government shutdown remain in place. He pointed to what he called modest job creation, moderation in wages, and indications that demand for workers may not be as strong.
“All that, to me, is an indication that rates could be a little bit lower than where they are now,” he said.
Miran weighs in on tariff arguments at Supreme Court
Miran also warned that if the Supreme Court were to rule that President Trump's tariffs imposed under economic emergency powers are illegal, it could increase uncertainty and weigh on the economy.
"Something that would increase uncertainty over the tariff environment, over the trade environment, is absolutely something that could be a drag on the economy," Miran said.
Read more: 5 ways to tariff-proof your finances
The Supreme Court justices, in nearly three hours of oral arguments on Wednesday, expressed skepticism about the president's authority to impose sweeping tariffs on countries around the world under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The US has made numerous trade deals under these sweeping powers and collected nearly $200 billion in tariff revenue as of Sept. 30.
Miran noted that tariff revenue amounts to savings in the economy, and if there's an increase in national savings, that would lead to lower interest rates.
"If that revenue were to go away, then you would sort of naturally think that would have implications for interest rates that would be of importance to monetary policy," Miran said.
He also mentioned that while trade tensions with China appear to have been resolved in the short run, given the deal struck last week, he'll have to watch the durability of that agreement and whether it holds or becomes a source of greater uncertainty if tensions flare again.
Jennifer Schonberger covers the Federal Reserve, Congress, the White House, the Treasury, the SEC, the economy, cryptocurrencies, and the intersection of Washington policy with finance. Follow her on X @Jenniferisms and on Instagram.
Click here for the latest economic news and indicators to help inform your investing decisions
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Source: “AOL Money”
