Tag: Fed

Boston Fed Picks Economist Susan Collins as Chief

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on Wednesday named University of Michigan provost Susan Collins as its next chief. Collins will start her job on July 1, the Boston Fed said in a statement. By then, the Fed is likely to have already begun to tighten monetary policy to fight inflation, raising interest rates and…


Fed’s Barkin: ‘I’d Have to Be Convinced’ of Need for Half-Point Rate Hike

Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Tom Barkin on Thursday said he would be “conceptually” open to raising interest rates by a bigger-than-usual half-of-a-percentage point increment, but does not see a need for it now. “Do I think there’s a screaming need to do it right now?” Barkin said at a virtual meeting at the Stanford…


US May Be on ‘Cusp’ of Inflation Slowdown, Fed’s Bostic Tells CNBC

WASHINGTON—The U.S. economy may be nearing a turn lower in inflation, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said on Wednesday, though he added he is still leaning towards a slightly faster pace of interest rate increases this year. “I am very hopeful we are going to start to see that decline … There is some evidence…


Fed’s Daly Says US Inflation Could Get Worse Before It Gets Better

WASHINGTON—High U.S. inflation may get even higher before subsiding in the face of Federal Reserve action and as supply chain strains recede, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly said on Tuesday. “We could have it be worse before it gets better but it is definitely going to get better,” Daly told CNN, adding…


Fed’s Barkin Says Rates Should Move to Pre-Pandemic Levels, Then Assess Next Steps

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Federal Reserve needs to begin raising interest rates but it is too soon to say how far or fast that process will need to go to bring inflation under control, Richmond Federal Reserve president Thomas Barkin said Thursday. He said it remained uncertain, given the ongoing pandemic and the tangled state of global…


Biden’s Fed Nominees Back US Inflation Fight

The Federal Reserve’s inflation fight should be its top priority, President Joe Biden’s nominees to the central bank’s Board of Governors told lawmakers on Thursday, signaling support for a hawkish pivot in U.S. monetary policy that’s already well underway. In a nearly three-hour Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing for Fed nominees Lisa Cook, Philip Jefferson,…


Raskin Tells Senate It Is Not Fed’s Job to Prescribe Bank Lending

WASHINGTON—Sarah Bloom Raskin, President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve’s regulatory work, plans to tell lawmakers she does not believe the role includes telling banks where they should be lending. In prepared testimony posted by the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday ahead of her nomination hearing on Thursday, Raskin said the role…


Dollar to Stay Dominant, but Big Fed Push Needed to Climb Higher: Poll

BENGALURU—The U.S. dollar will reign supreme for at least another 3–6 months, a Reuters poll of strategists found, saying it will take a significant change in market expectations for Federal Reserve rate hikes to push it higher. Indeed, while the dollar was not expected to make any significant headway from current levels, it was forecast…


Fed’s Bullard Sees Three Successive Hikes to Start Policy Tightening

St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard on Tuesday said he favors starting the turn to tighter U.S. monetary policy with successive rate increases at the Fed’s March, May, and June meetings, before assessing whether the pace of inflation requires more aggressive steps from there. But he pushed back against the idea of kicking off…


Fed’s Bullard Says US Unemployment Rate Can Go Below 3 Percent This Year

NEW YORK—St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard said he sees the unemployment rate falling below 3 percent this year, a jobless rate the U.S. economy last saw in the early 1950s. “I think unemployment is going to go down below 3 percent this year,” Bullard said on Tuesday in a Reuters interview. He…