Most Economists Predict No More Rate Cuts

ByJohn S. McClenahen Although the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Federal Reserve panel that sets U.S. monetary policy, is next slated to meet on Aug. 12, another interest rate cut is unlikely before the FOMC's Sept. 16 session, if then. "We do not expect anymore easing," says Maury Harris, chief U.S. economist at UBS Investment Research, New York. And he seems to have a lot of company among other economists at the moment. However, there is at least one dissenter. "We do not believe that the Fed is done [lowering interest rates] -- although the futures market and most other economists do," states David A. Rosenberg, chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch & Co., New York. The influential federal funds target rate, the interest rate that banks charge each other on overnight loans, is now at a 45-year low of 1%.