PANews reported on August 14 that U.S. Treasury Secretary Benson said he was not asking the Federal Reserve to make a series of interest rate cuts, but only pointed out that models show that the "neutral" interest rate will be about 1.5 percentage points lower than it is now. Bessant said: "I am not telling the Fed what to do." He was referring to his remarks the day before that the Fed "could start a series of rate cuts." Bessant said on Thursday: "What I said is that to get to the neutral interest rate, it would take about 150 basis points of rate cuts. If you believe in the existence of a neutral interest rate, I think there is room for a series of rate cuts, but I am not calling for rate cuts, nor have I done so. I am just saying that the neutral interest rate calculated by the model is about 150 basis points lower than the current level."