Fed’s Stephen Miran wants 5 interest rate cuts by end of 2025

Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran said he believes the central bank should cut interest rates five times by year’s end, rendering him an outlier in the Federal Open Market Committee tasked with deciding borrowing costs.

Miran, who joined the Board of Governors this week after taking unpaid leave from his White House job, also said he didn’t see evidence of President Donald Trump’s tariffs popping up in economic data. He cited price changes for import-intensive products as keeping apace with overall core goods.

“I don’t see any material inflation from tariffs,” Miran told CNBC . “I see no evidence that it’s occurred.”

Miran added that he spoke to Trump briefly during a congratulatory call that didn’t touch on his pending vote or future Fed activities. Miran’s unpaid leave has stirred criticism from experts that he will serve as a Trump loyalist within an institution designed to make monetary policy decisions without political meddling.

The Trump appointee said he would resign his White House post “immediately” if the president decided to name him for a term that stretches past January, the anticipated expiration date.

Miran also said he will lay out his economic reasoning in a speech on Monday. “I will do independent analysis based on my interpretation of the data, based on my interpretation of the economy,” Miran said. “And that’s what I will do.”

Trump’s new Fed appointee raised eyebrows among Fed watchers on Wednesday after he dissented and pushed for a steeper interest rate cut of 50 basis points. The amount was double what the FOMC ultimately settled on

“There wasn’t widespread support at all” for a 50 basis point cut, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference following the Fed decision to cut interest rates by 25 basis points.

Before joining the Fed, Miran chaired the Council of Economic Advisors, a panel that provides economic guidance to the president and issues economic reports. Miran was tapped to replace Adriana Kugler, another Fed governor who resigned unexpectedly in early August only four months before her term was up.

The GOP-controlled Senate scrambled to confirm his Fed appointment just in time for the start of the two-day Fed meeting on Tuesday morning.