Should central bankers argue in public?

Jerome Powell’s tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve has been admirably sure-footed. But on July 31st he may have stumbled when he announced that interest rates would remain at 5.25-5.5%. This was soon followed by unexpectedly weak employment data. Markets around the world then plunged as investors worried that the Fed had fallen behind the curve.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Great divide”