TOKYO – About the only thing US Democrats and Republicans agree on is that the Federal Reserve is behind the inflation curve.
On the left, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and ex-White House economist Jason Furman worry that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell continues to miss the plot. On the right, former Council of Economic Advisers head Glenn Hubbard and monetary guru John Taylor seethe over the Fed slow-walking a tightening cycle that should have begun months ago.
Yet the real confusion is here in Asia, where central banks are doing their jobs in ways Powell won’t. From Seoul to Singapore to Wellington, officials are actively hitting the brakes as inflation risks intensify. They are getting ahead of the inflation curve.
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