Speeches, Interviews, Essays

Jobs “Well, I think that unemployment is going to rise a little bit. We have to do our summary of economic projections submissions. In my submission for this year, I have unemployment moving from about 3.7% to 4%. So, a slight increase, but not huge numbers. And I think it’s just going to be the…

Inflation “Inflation remains far too high, despite some encouraging signs lately, and is therefore of great concern. As a Fed policymaker, I am committed to bringing inflation back to our 2 percent goal.” Inflation Expectations “Since the onset of the pandemic, medians of many surveys of longer-run measures suggest that inflation expectations are still within…

Fed Funds “The policy rate, our policy rate of the FOMC is not yet in a zone that might be considered sufficiently restricted, but we are getting closer.” “Now, is the policy rate at the right level? The committee stated in our statement that we wanted to get to a level of the policy rate…

Fed Funds “Well, I think I’ll be over 5% and I see staying there for some time, again until we get the signals that inflation is really convincingly starting to fall back toward our 2% goal.” Interview question about keeping rates high – Is that well into 2024? George’s Answer: “It is for me” Recession…

No economic forecasts provided Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic gives the opening remarks at the Day Ahead Conference on Financial Markets and Institutions on Thursday, January 5.  Bostic points out that the focus of the conference is on the interplay between the financial markets and monetary policy. Inflation “The biggest headwind, of course, is inflation.…

Fed Funds “I see three steps in our policy process to bring inflation back down to 2 percent. The first step was to rapidly raise rates, which we did in 2022. Once we understood that our models were not capturing the inflationary dynamics noted above, we simply needed to raise rates aggressively until we were…

Consumer Demand “Take consumer demand. Overall, it looks solid, but conversations with retailers in our district have helped us understand the nuance. Lower-price retailers tell us their customers have pulled back amid inflation and recession fears. As lower-income consumers are squeezed on the essentials, say at the pump and the grocery store, their demand for…

No economic information was shared. “Eliminating economic disparities that have lasted over generations is no easy task. Right now, lower-income households have less access to high-quality education and job-skills programs, which means they have less access to higher-paying jobs and job security. That leads to less access to high-quality housing and so lower access to…

Fed Funds “Well, I think we’re well on our way there, and I think when you look at the central tendency of the dots, my colleagues expect the Fed funds rate to get to, say, 5% to 5.5% next year. I think that gets us into that hopefully sufficiently restrictive stance of policy that will…

Fed Funds “We’re going to go until the job is well and truly done which is 2% on average inflation. That means that I have a tighter path of policy, a higher terminal rate or a higher peak rate for the funds rate. I have it held longer than some of the bond investors would…