Cutting rates on 'potential' economic slump? The horror!

Sarcasm is hard to avoid after reading a Bloomberg article titled "Bernanke Cuts on Slum 'Potential', Adopting Greenspan Approach"

After all, isn't avoiding 'slumps' the main job of central banks? Or do they have to wait until a full-blown recession to start cutting rates?

The problem, as always, is semantics. As George Orwell noted long ago, sloppy language leads to sloppy thinking. This is very much in evidence in this article, as in most financial journalism. Concretely, one has to determine what is understood by 'potential slump'

I'm pretty sure that the author meant was that Bernanke sought a rate cut to insulate the economy from the turbulence in financial markets, much as Alan Greenspan did by cutting rates after the Russian debt/LTCM debacle in 1998.

But that analogy is incorrect. In 1998, the U.S. economy was cruising along, growing at an annual rate well over 3% in the first half of that year. Thus, the rate cuts were purely preventive in the sense that market turmoil might have led to a downturn if no action had been taken.

The situation is very different this year. A sharp slowdown, though not a recession, in the economy was pretty evident well before turmoil hit the markets. In fact, while the credit crunch will certainly aggravate the recession in the housing sector, this downturn mostly reflects an imbalance in housing supply and demand that, while obviously related to financial factors, is not determined solely by them.

Thus, the rate cut is not 'preventive': the threat of a housing-led recession is very real and growing, with the current market turmoil clearly contributing to it.

With all due respect, the persons that question the rate reduction on moral hazard (bailout) grounds are nuts, as they're asking the Fed to not do its job. The other set of critics, who state that the Fed is underestimating the risk of inflation, are on firmer ground, but not much. After all, core PCE inflation is below 2%, within the Fed's informal range, and the economy is growing below potential.