The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that still-elevated inflation means the U.S. Federal Reserve is projecting fewer rate cuts than previously expected, but it remains that the central bank has a somewhat newfound dovish stance. Guest columnist Rajesh Sharma writes that this sets up expectation for a healthy mergers-and-acquisitions market in 2025. We known that lower interest rates have an encouraging effect on deal-making. For buyers, falling rates lower the cost of capital and make deals easier to close. For sellers, they provide more optionality in the form of a larger pool of willing buyers. Although second-quarter M&A activity declined slightly from the prior year's Q2, investment-banking fees increased in the period. For example, Bank of America and Citigroup's investment-banking fees increased 18 per cent and 44 per cent in Q2. Conventional wisdom is that most of this growth in fees was attributable to debt issuance, but JPMorgan's advisory fees were up 10 per cent and equity-related fees were up 26 per cent. Also, JPMorgan's investment banking fee growth was driven by the acceleration of the closing of some M&A transactions. M&A activity is increasing and the Fed is helping.