Highlights from Kansas City Fed President Esther George who spoke in Oklahoma:

  • US economy’s performance has been muted
  • 6.1% not far from some views of full employment
  • Home sales are starting to take off again
  • Labor demand signs bode well for wage growth
  • Businesses have a lot of cash on their books
  • Inflation to start moving toward 2% target

Not much here from George, who is a major hawk, she will take audience questions after the speech.

That growth range is optimistic, we’d need to hit a quarterly growth pace of 4% in Q2, Q3 and Q4 to 2.25% for the full year. Consensus for Q2 is 3.5% then 3.1% in the final two quarters.

Update:

  • George sees a reach for yield in a number of places
  • Balance sheet likely to be near $4.5 trillion
  • Taper to continue as long as economy progresses