The Fed and Monday’s Correction

August 2024, Opinion: "Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell must be kicking himself for not cutting the federal-funds rate at last week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting. The monthly jobs report two days later showed weakness, from slow job growth and decreasing average weekly hours to a rising unemployment rate and decelerating wage growth. Now we’re seeing market volatility spiking, corrections in many equity markets, and a full-on bear market in Japan. The Fed’s decision created a problem that was more optics than economics. It should now move quickly with words and actions to fix it."