Bitunix Analyst: Hassett Points Finger at Fed's 'Significantly Delayed' Rate Cut Policy Pace Battle Comes to a Head

BlockBeats News, December 24th. Kevin Hassett, Director of the White House National Economic Council and a leading candidate to be the next Chair of the Federal Reserve, recently criticized the Fed's rate-cutting pace, bluntly stating that the United States has "severely lagged behind global central banks" in this round of easing. Despite the U.S. GDP growing at an annualized rate of 4.3% in the third quarter, significantly better than market expectations, Hassett still believes that monetary policy has not timely responded to structural changes. He pointed out that the AI investment wave is boosting productivity while exerting medium-term downward pressure on inflation, diminishing the rationale for maintaining excessively high real interest rates. He also emphasized that compared to major central banks worldwide, the U.S. has gradually developed a relatively tighter stance in terms of policy shifts. Although the Fed has cut interest rates three times this year and lowered them by another 25 basis points in December, it has seen the most dissents internally since 2019, indicating a significant widening of divergent views.

On the political front, Trump continues to exert pressure for faster and more aggressive rate cuts, and is about to announce a new nominee for Fed Chair, making the independence and direction of monetary policy a highly focused market concern. While Hassett has stressed respect for central bank independence, his stance has clearly indicated a preference for supporting a growth-oriented policy mindset.

Bitunix Analyst:

From the perspective of the overall economic structure, the U.S. is currently in a crucial transition phase of "data still strong, trends have changed." AI-driven investment and productivity improvements are reshaping the traditional relationship between inflation and economic growth, while high interest rates continue to accumulate pressure on the lower- and middle-income groups and small businesses. The real risk of current policy lies not in premature easing, but in choosing to wait and see when structural inflation slowdown has become a trend, ultimately forcing a more drastic correction in the future. This is also an important backdrop for the market to begin trading "policy lag correction" in advance.