Resolving “tension” between high inflation and still-elevated unemployment is the most urgent issue facing the Federal Reserve right now, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday, acknowledging the central bank’s two goals are in potential conflict. “This is not the situation that we have faced for a very long time and it is one in which there is a tension between our two objectives…Inflation is high and well above target and yet there appears to be slack in the labor market,” Powell said at a European Central Bank forum, an apparent reference to the 1970s bout of U.S. “stagflation” that combined high unemployment and fast-rising prices. The United States is more than 5 million jobs short of where it was before the pandemic. At the Fed’s most recent meeting policymakers lifted their inflation forecasts for this year to 4.2 percent—more than twice the targeted level of 2 percent. They see that …
Powell: ‘Tension’ Between Jobs, Inflation Is the Chief Challenge Facing Fed
September 30, 2021
admin
0 Comment