Bullard Backs 100bps In 2025 Rate Cuts In Hopes Of Replacing Powell

With candidates hoping to replace Jerome Powell coming up with increasingly dovish – not to mention – plans on how to attract Trump’s attention and jump in the lead earlier this morning, former St. Louis Fed president James Bullard, who has emerged a long-shot contender for the next US central bank chief, called for a percentage point of interest-rate cuts this year, with scope to do more in 2026.

“Rates are a little bit high right now, and I think we can get down about 100 basis points going into 2026 — I think that’ll start with a rate reduction here at the September meeting, and probably be followed up later this year,” Bullard said on Fox Business Thursday.

Bullard, now dean of Purdue University’s business school, said he’d been in contact with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent about his candidacy for Fed chair, and is aiming to set up an interview with him, “probably” after Labor Day — which falls on Sept. 1.

As for further rate cuts next year, Bullard said it will depend on how data come in. He also cited the need to protect the reserve status of the dollar.

Unfortunately for Bullard, he remains dead last in the Polymarket Powell-replacement sweepstakes, and he will have to either push for NIRP or, even better, Yield Curve Control if he hopes to have any real chance of getting Trump to notice him.