Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday that persistent supply chain disruptions and “huge” geopolitical events happening around the globe could foil the Fed’s attempts at engineering a so-called “soft landing” for the U.S. economy, with the central bank chief’s statement amounting to an acknowledgment of the possibility of a recession.
Powell made the remarks in an interview on NPR’s “Marketplace,” in which he was asked whether he’s more concerned about the prospect of high inflation sticking around or the notion that the Fed’s monetary tightening response to surging prices could spark a recession.
“It’s a very challenging environment to make monetary policy,” Powell replied. “Our goal, of course, is to get inflation back down to 2 percent without having the economy go into recession, or, to put it this way, with the labor market remaining fairly strong.”
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