Julian Marx (Flossbach von Storch) | The US Federal Reserve has just announced the second interest rate cut of the year. It is going down by 25 basis points to a new range of 4.5 to 4.75 per cent. The Fed’s confidence in today’s interest rate move may also have been drawn from the latest ‘Beige Book’, which is considered a barometer of the US economy and is published two…

J. P. Marín-Arrese | Jerome Powell boasts having curbed the recent inflation flare through resolute tightening of monetary policy.  While the need to perform rate hikes seems obvious, it seems far from evident it stood as the paramount driving force. For, as is now clear, the Fed delivered negative rates throughout the inflationary bout and only undertook lukewarm efforts to drain the excess liquidity fearing the danger of a credit-crunch….

The Fed has lowered interest rates by 0.5 points, thus aligning with the market, which anticipated a roughly 70% probability of a 50 basis point cut. As a financial institution noted this morning, “the risk for credit markets is that a 50 basis point cut may be interpreted as an emergency measure. Consequently, the gradual approach and soft landing that have benefited this type of asset could be disrupted. On…