TOKYO – The mid-1990s vibe emanating from Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington is becoming harder for dollar bulls to dismiss.
In the short run, the Fed’s decision to hike interest rates Wednesday by 75 basis points, not a full percentage point, was greeted by investors as welcome news. What’s not, however, is how Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s past mistakes are about to wreck the second half of Asia’s 2022.
Powell is surely determined to make up lost ground. Namely, for sitting back in 2021 and calling US inflation “transitory” instead of confronting it with sizable rate hikes — back when it might have made a difference.
“The question is why did they delay that, why did they delay their response?” former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke told CNBC. “I think in retrospect, yes, it was a mistake. And I think they agree it was a mistake.”