Was the Fed justified in cutting rates by 50 basis points? Here’s what AI and Deutsche Bank think.

The Federal Reserve’s big interest-rate cut of 50 basis points this week to kick off its monetary-policy easing cycle looks harder to justify than those in 2001 and 2007, according to Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid.

In the January 2001 and September 2007, the half-percentage-point rate cuts “happened just 3-4 months before the US economy was in recession,” Reid, global head of economics and thematic research, wrote in a Friday client note. “So there’s been some nerves about whether we’re in for a repeat.”