Speeches, Interviews, Essays

“When we do our briefings, and we’re going to break into that in a couple of weeks, we definitely go through all the national numbers, but we always have an extended segment where we review the responses from the SBU and some of the other surveys that we do. That really informs us because it…

“But with the adjustment path for monetary policy that I’m anticipating, I think that the labor market ought to be able to maintain quite a lot of vibrancy. At the end of that, are we at full employment? I just think that we don’t want to unnecessarily put stress on labor markets and small businesses.…

“Since joining the Richmond Fed in 2018, I have visited small towns all across our District, from the coasts to the mountains. Some of these communities are thriving—perhaps they’ve been able to capitalize on natural endowments, or they’ve partnered with neighboring towns, or they’ve found a creative source of funding. But other communities are struggling.…

“Well, getting down to 2% and getting some relief for American consumers are different things. So I don’t expect that we’ll get to 2% fully by the end of the year because we have so many supply chain bottlenecks that still have to work themselves out. And COVID’s not left the global economy. We haven’t…

“So, all of those conditions really point to the fact that we have a very strong economy, and for a monetary policy maker it means that we really need to be removing that emergency level of accommodation that was very much needed early in the pandemic, but is not needed now. Our job at the…

“So at this point, we do need to take action. We need to take action. I am supportive of our next meeting taking action. That said, I’m still on the camp of the 25 basis point increase and continuing to do 25 basis point increases because it’s really remember a three-prong approach. We’re stopping the…

“Asked how the Federal Open Market Committee should manage the Fed’s bond holdings, Bullard said he would prefer to see passive balance sheet runoff where the Fed doesn’t replace maturing securities initially, but also to have a plan B whereby the Fed could consider asset sales at some point if inflation doesn’t moderate and doesn’t…

“One major evolution that separates today’s Federal Reserve from the Federal Reserve 50 years ago is a deep understanding that inflation expectations influence future inflation. If people expect inflation to persist, then it does. And this understanding led the Fed and economist more broadly to a critical insight. In order to manage actual inflation, policymakers…

“The FOMC is beginning the process of reducing accommodation. Since March 2020, the FOMC has maintained the target range of the fed funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent to support the economy. At our January meeting, the Committee announced that it will soon be appropriate to raise the target range. Barring an unexpected turn…

Rate Hikes: “The pace of tightening will depend on the data. One possibility is that the target range is raised 25 basis points at each of our next four meetings. But if, for example, tomorrow’s PCE inflation report for January, and jobs and CPI reports for February indicate that the economy is still running exceedingly…