BCA Research: Fed's rate trajectory is eerily similar to Japan's

The Fed wants to avoid, at all costs, entering the next recession with limited ammunition. Japan has been unable to sustainably lift rates since the turn of the century. Every time the BOJ has attempted to tighten monetary policy, the economy has endured recession. The highest it managed to lift rates was to 0.5% leading up to the Great Recession. The zero lower bound has served as a magnet, severely handicapping Japanese conventional monetary policy. This is clearly a predicament the Fed wants to avoid, but the similarities with Japan are eerie. The chart highlights that the Fed is closely following in the BOJ’s footsteps. Similarly, the lower bound of the 70% confidence interval of the Fed’s June median fed funds rate projection, as highlighted by Janet Yellen in her Jackson Hole speech, is flirting with the zero line. While we are not arguing that the U.S. is Japan, the odds are that the Fed will not have raised the Fed funds rate by enough in order to regain policy latitude for the next recession. (VIEW LINK)