Two Fed dissenters appeared alone in favoring rate cut as tariff debate simmers: meeting minutes

The two Federal Reserve policymakers who dissented against the central bank decision’s to leave interest rates unchanged last month appear not to have been joined by other policymakers in voicing support for lowering rates at that meeting, a readout of the gathering released on Wednesday showed.

“Almost all participants viewed it as appropriate to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 4.25% to 4.50% at this meeting,” the minutes of the July 29-30 meeting said.

Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and Governor Christopher Waller both voted against the decision to leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged, favoring instead a quarter-percentage-point reduction to guard against further weakening of the job market. It was the first time since 1993 that mo