Fed internal rift escalates: This interest rate meeting may see a rare dissenting vote.

[Bitpush] The Fed may be about to split this time.

The Federal Reserve has always been criticized for its pursuit of a unified stance, but this time the interest rate meeting is expected to see a rare occurrence of dissenting votes. This issue is not just about the internal voting numbers—policy signals will become ambiguous, and external doubts about the Fed's independence will intensify.

Let's take a look at the voting seats of the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee): out of the 12 voting members, 5 have clearly expressed opposition or skepticism towards continuing interest rate cuts, while 3 core figures from the board are in favor of the cuts. This sense of division will likely be reflected in the voting results at the meeting at the end of the month.

Some analysts believe that if Powell hints at a “possible pause in the easing pace” at the post-meeting press conference, rate cuts could still be passed as a compromise solution. Before entering the blackout period, those committee members who questioned rate cuts said they would “keep an open mind”; meanwhile, Waller, who has been pushing for rate cuts since noticing the weakness in the job market last summer, made a more pragmatic statement: what to do after December? It depends on whether the statistical department can complete the missing data after the government shutdown lasted for 43 days.