Risk of ‘wrathful Old Testament–style’ reaction from central banks is rising, JPMorgan says

The “gentle and forgiving path” taken by developed-market central banks to rein in inflation over the past year is likely to prove unsuccessful and trigger the need for more forceful, biblical-type action.That’s the view of economists Bruce Kasman, Joseph Lupton and Michael Hanson of JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM, who described the response of central bankers in the past year as embodying “a New Testament–style grace” — in terms of keeping the economic expansion going and tolerating a gradual decline in inflation. Rate hikes so far have been “a correction from inappropriately accommodative stances rather than an attempt to…