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Acting Labor Secretary Sandlin\u2019s push for earlier Fed cuts clashes with a cautious central bank, leaving crypto trading a \u201chigher for longer\u201d regime even as the political drumbeat for easing grows louder.<\/p>\n
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Acting Labor Secretary Sandlin\u2019s remark, reported by Jinshi, that the Federal Reserve should \u201cconsider lowering interest rates\u201d adds an explicit voice from the administration\u2019s economic team to a growing chorus arguing that current policy is too tight for the labor market. While the exact wording of Sandlin\u2019s statement has not been widely syndicated yet, it echoes recent comments from Fed officials like Governor Christopher Waller and Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, who have both said they are prepared to back cuts if job losses mount or labor data deteriorate.<\/p>\n
Waller told CNBC in March that he supported holding rates at the April meeting but was \u201cwilling to advocate for rate cuts later this year\u201d if the labor market \u201cremains weak,\u201d while Bowman warned in January that, absent \u201ca clear and sustained improvement in labor market conditions,\u201d the Fed should be ready to bring policy \u201ccloser to neutral.\u201d In parallel, former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has criticized the central bank for being \u201ctoo slow\u201d to lower rates after being late to hike during the pandemic, telling The National that he expects the terminal rate to settle between 3% and 3.5%, below where the Fed has been for much of the past year.<\/p>\n
Despite this, the center of gravity inside the Fed is still firmly on the side of caution. A late\u2011April Reuters poll of economists found that most now expect the first cut no earlier than Q4 2026, with war\u2011related energy shocks and sticky inflation leading markets to scale back bets on 2026 easing. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari has gone further, telling Reuters that the oil shock from the Strait of Hormuz and Gaza could even justify hiking again if inflation re\u2011accelerates, and Boston Fed President Susan Collins recently said she was \u201cstrongly supportive\u201d of holding rates at 3.5\u20133.75% rather than signaling imminent cuts.<\/p>\n
For crypto markets, what matters is less Sandlin\u2019s individual statement and more how it interacts with the evolving Fed path. Crypto.news has already documented how falling odds of 2026 rate cuts have pressured bitcoin, with one\u00a0story\u00a0noting that BTC retreated after strong GDP data pushed back expectations for easing and left traders re\u2011pricing key support around $80,000. Another crypto.news\u00a0story\u00a0showed a similar pattern after disappointing jobs revisions in February: as markets inferred \u201chigher for longer,\u201d the total crypto market cap dropped and bitcoin slid below $67,000.<\/p>\n
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