It's True: The Fed Has Already Cut Fed Funds to 5%

Greg Mankiw reports today on the Fed's s "secret rate cut" to 5%, via Robert Barro. The graph above reflects the "effective daily Fed Funds rate" from the Federal Reserve and confirms what Barro is saying.

As Mankiw points out, the Fed was able to hit its target rate of 5.25% in every month since the Fed Funds target was increased from 5% to 5.25% on June 29, 2006. But in August, the average daily Fed Funds rate fell to 5.02% and so far this month the average is 4.99%. In fact, the effective Fed Funds rate has been below 5% on 8 out of the last 11 days, and has been below 4.9% on 3 out of the last 4 days.