Last updated Nov 29, 2025
Prediction
Chamath
politicseconomy
The Federal Reserve will refrain from cutting interest rates (i.e., will not reduce the federal funds target range below 4.25–4.5%) through at least the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, despite emerging liquidity warning signs, due in part to political considerations related to President Trump.
What I'm saying very directly is that the fed is acting in in a manner that is as much politically motivated as financially motivated… I think that if the fed really wanted to get ahead of it, they could cut. But the political overlay is cutting helps Trump. And I think there's this tension between these two people. And I think that the fed is saying we're not going to cut.View on YouTube
Explanation

At the time of the podcast (9 May 2025), the federal funds target range was 4.25–4.50%, where it had been held since the end of 2024 after cumulative 100 bps of cuts that brought it to that level.(federalreserve.gov) Chamath’s normalized prediction was that the Fed would not cut rates below this 4.25–4.50% range through at least the 2026 U.S. midterms. However, the Fed cut the target range to 4.00–4.25% at its September 2025 meeting and then further to 3.75–4.00% at the October 29, 2025 meeting, clearly moving below the 4.25–4.50% band.(tradingeconomics.com) Multiple summaries of current policy state that as of November 2025 the target range remains 3.75–4.00%.(sezarroverseas.com) Because the Fed did in fact cut below 4.25–4.50% well before the 2026 midterms, the prediction is already falsified.