A lot of people, especially Wall Street traders, interpret every US economic statistic in terms of its possible impact on the Federal Reserve’s decisions about interest rates. You could be forgiven for concluding that lowering interest rates is the only salve for the economy, or that monetary policy is the only policy lever the US possesses.

Nevertheless, you would be wrong. There is nothing in last week’s stronger-than-expected jobs report, for example, or today’s weaker-than-expected GDP numbers, that prevents Congress from acting now to help Americans at home or at work.

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