"Fed Whisperer": December Rate Hike All but Certain, the Question Is the Pace

Nov. 11 — Nick Timiraos, the Wall Street Journal reporter known as the "new Fed wire," said in a post on X that a Federal Reserve rate hike in December is now all but certain. After the third consecutive strong inflation report, the question is the pace of hikes: whether to keep deciding meeting by meeting with 25-basis-point increases, to front-load a 50-basis-point hike, or to signal the possibility of faster consecutive 25-basis-point hikes. He said such tactical decisions are typically made by the Fed chair, citing Greenspan's 75-basis-point hikes in August 1994 and May 2000, and Powell's 75-basis-point hike in June 2022.