Forget rate cuts – what matters most is that the Fed is still printing money

As expected, the Federal Reserve cut US interest rates. And while Fed chief Jerome Powell may talk tough, he's still printing money. John Stepek explains what that means for markets, the US dollar, and for you.

Jerome Powell © Sha Hanting/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images

Fed chair Jerome Powell
(Image credit: Jerome Powell © Sha Hanting/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

Last night, the Federal Reserve, America's central bank, did exactly what markets expected: it cut interest rates.

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.