text:  Has the economy already slowed? And if the Fed cuts rates, is it enough to allow the economy to pick up steam again? I don't know. Right. So, Heather, what she's saying is long and variable lag works both ways, right? Powell says all the time monetary policy works with a long and variable lag, usually intuited to mean raising rates takes a while to grind through the economy. Cutting rates might as well, and therein lies the peril.