- Improvement in labor market has been widespread and 'remarkable'
- Labor market conditions are consistent with maximum employment
- There is a 'very broad agreement' on FOMC that it will be soon time to raise rates
- Fed funds rate is primary means of adjusting policy (not Fed funds)
- It's not possible to predict with much confidence the path of policy
- Says he doesn't rule out raising rates at every meeting
- My strong sense is we can move rates up without undermining employment
- “Quite a bit of room to raise rates without hurting jobs. “
- We are of the mind to hike in March
- We may move sooner and faster on the balance sheet than before
- We will discuss balance sheet at the next two meetings
- Inflation risks are still to the upside, in my view
- Inflation situation is 'slightly worse' than December
- Says he'd would be inclined to raise his core PCE forecast 'by a few tenths'
- We haven't made any decisions on the increments of hikes
- I expect progress to be made in the second half of the year on supply chains
I wouldn't call the growth in jobs 'remarkable'. The average in the past four months is 368K and it was 199k last month.
Meanwhile, he's not reeling in the hawkish talk at all. I would have thought Powell would be more delicate with the hawkish talk given the backdrop. Stocks aren't going to like this.
