We got inflation post-COVID in part because central banks were too worried about recession. Now they're worrying about recession again

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Enthusiasm is growing for the Bank of Canada to cut interest rates by more than its usual up or down of 25 basis points. In FP Comment yesterday, Steve Ambler and Jeremy Kronick, seasoned observers of monetary policy, made the case for a 50-basis point cut at the Bank’s next scheduled interest rate announcement, on Oct. 23. That comes in the wake of a 50-basis point cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, though the Fed is currently operating in a feverish, if not crazed pre-election political environment. So far our political craziness is mainly confined to the floor of the House of Commons.

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Fed or no Fed, if I were the Bank of Canada, I’d go slow.

Though being an interest rate hawk is a tough, dirty job, somebody’s got to do it. Before doing it, though, let me declare an interest. Some monetary-policy critics argue we hawks are only in it because we’re “rentiers,” to use the academic-economist term for people living off interest on financial assets. We supposedly push high interest rates because we like the income they bring to our savings accounts. (On the other hand, we presumably don’t........

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