Most Economic Indicators Tell Me The Fed Should Cut Rates Sooner, Not Later

GOCMEN/iStock via Getty Images When it comes to deciding when to begin cutting key short-term interest rates, it seems to me that the Federal Reserve seems overly fixated on small monthly variations in various inflation indicators rather than paying attention to the dramatic slowdown in the U.S. economy. In my view, they should start cutting rates no later than May 1st, rather than June, which most pundits and Fed spokesmen now predict. For instance, the Commerce Department announced last Thursday that retail sales declined by -0.8% in January, which was well below the economists' consensus expectation of a smaller -0.2%…