The Fed Cuts, While Powell Displays the Power of ‘No’

Donald Trump won’t return to the White House for another 10 weeks, but he’s already casting a shadow over central banks. And his presence provided more or less the only note of interest after a FOMC meeting that felt like a total anticlimax after this week’s election drama. The fed funds rate came down by 0.25% as universally foreseen, but the bottom line is that the expected course of rates over the next year barely moved at all.

Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference arguably made it a little easier not to go through with a cut at next month’s meeting ...