The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, Sept. 20, edition that two years ago, the Bank of Canada raised its policy interest rate by a full percentage point to combat high inflation and an overheated economy. The Globe's Tony Keller writes that now Governor Tiff Macklem may need to catch up with a significant interest-rate cut. This approach, known as "front-loading," was used before and may be necessary now to address the current economic challenges. Front-loaded tightening cycles tend to lead to softer landings. This suggests raising our policy rate quickly to the top end or slightly above the neutral range. Mr. Keller says acting swiftly and decisively would help the economy recover faster, reducing the need for more aggressive measures in the future. He says there are signs that the BOC is on a path to undershooting the goal, just as it overshot coming out of the pandemic recession. An economy that was once overheated is now underheated. Blood pressure is too low, not too high. The question is not whether the bank should unwind high interest rates, rather it is whether it should unwind faster. On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve did just that, lowering its benchmark rate by an aggressive half percentage point.
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