They were not, though, in a panic or worried about an imminent recession. Instead, they were thinking that the old interest rate would not be appropriate going forward.

Michelle Bowman said such a big initial rate cut could complicate the Fed's mission of getting inflation back to its 2% target.

The only Federal Reserve official to dissent from the central bank’s aggressive half-point interest-rate cut earlier this week said she thought it would send the wrong message to markets that inflation was dead.