One-in-a-million shot: I agree with a WSJ editorial

Yesterday afternoon, I suggested that the Federal Reserve erred by not raising interest rates. This morning I was surprised to learn that the Wall Street Journal [subscription required] editorial page shared my view that the evidence of inflation in the economy was sufficiently clear that the Fed should have raised rates to damp inflationary expectations.

The WSJ cited Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, the one dissenting vote at yesterday’s Fed meeting, who found the 4.2% increase in unit labor costs in yesterday’s productivity report to be a strong piece of evidence supporting the need to raise rates.

I have been reading the Wall Street Journal and its editorial pages for about 30 years. In many recent cases I have skimmed these pages because I feared that reading them in detail would cause me to spontaneously empty the contents of my stomach.

This morning’s editorial was the first time I can remember actually agreeing with a WSJ editorial. I guess if you live long enough, such coincidences are bound to happen.