- Steve Forbes doesn’t expect the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in the coming meetings, but the Forbes Media chairman doesn’t see any rate cuts in the near future either.
- Asked whether the U.S. is facing a possible government shutdown, Forbes said he believes one is coming.
- He said Congress would continue until the deadline, but warned of the danger “as you get close to the cliff, you could slip and fall over the cliff.”
Steve Forbes doesn’t expect the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in the coming meetings, but the Forbes Media chairman doesn’t see any rate cuts in the near future either.
“I think the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates in the next few months. I think they’re going to take a break,” Forbes said, citing the slew of conflicting U.S. economic data.
“Some things are weak, the labor market is usually a lagging indicator. But the services.” [sector] The report was pretty good,” he told CNBC’s Chery Kang on the sidelines of the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore.
“So it’s a mixed picture [an] Sorry to finally do nothing,” he said.
The next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled for September 19-20. According to the CME’s FedWatch tool, there is a 92% chance the central bank will leave interest rates unchanged after its September meeting. But those probabilities shift to a 38.4% chance of a rate hike after the November meeting.
The Fed began its aggressive rate hike campaign in March 2022 as inflation climbed to its highest level in 40 years.
Asked whether the U.S. is facing a possible government shutdown, Forbes said he believes one is coming.
Unless Congress takes action, funding for the federal government will run out at the end of the month. Failure to pass the spending bills would result in a shutdown on September 30th.
Forbes said Washington would wait “until the deadline” before reaching an agreement.
“But the danger posed by these things [when] We will keep getting closer to the cliff, otherwise you might slip and fall over the cliff. There could be a government shutdown,” he said.
Forbes also said he expects the 2024 election to be “pocket-back,” with the economy the “No. 1 issue.”
Other topics will include crime and foreign policy, such as Washington’s position on the world stage and its approach towards Ukraine.