"The Fed's mouthpiece": The internal winds within the Fed are shifting, with the policy path moving from expectations of rate cuts to assessments of rate hikes.

Nick Timiraos, often referred to as the "Federal Reserve mouthpiece," wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the internal discussion within the Federal Reserve regarding the path of interest rates has shifted significantly. The main debate is no longer about when to resume rate cuts, but rather about under what conditions a rate hike might be necessary. Since the Fed began issuing policy statements in 1994, disagreements on how to describe policy direction (rather than actual interest rate changes) have been rare. Three regional Fed presidents—Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, and two others—opposed retaining the phrase "the next step is more likely to be a rate cut" in this week's policy meeting, arguing that the next rate adjustment could be either a rate hike or a rate cut. Outgoing Fed Chairman Jerome Powell stated that the committee is gradually shifting from a "rate-cutting bias" to a "neutral stance," adding that if a rate hike is needed in the future, the Fed will first shift to a neutral stance before signaling a rate hike. (WSJ)