Fed's William Dudley speaks on CNBC
- Says the US economy is going to get some inventory drag in the second half of the year
- Hopes to get inflation back to 2%
- Jobs report was definitely weaker
- 120k-150k jobs per month is enough to push unemployment rate down
- US economy is downshifting a bit
- Is watching to see if lower Chinese growth feeds EM weakness
- Domestic side of the economy looks good
- Possible that the Fed could hike this month
- Says he's still in the 2015 lift off camp
- He predicts liftoff this year on forecasts but not commitment
- Not thinking about additional QE but you can't rule anything out
- Fed has a large range of tools
- Negative rates are an option but not realistic at this point
Dudley shed his dove wings some time ago
I'm having one of those moments where the little bell goes off in my head when same subject pops up repeatedly in quick succession. We've had a few comments on negative rates now, most notably from super dove Kocherlakota. I'm probably reading too much into it but if you're talking about raising rates then saying they are not realistic "at this point" doesn't firmly shut the door on the matter
To me it suggests that if the economy falters, that will be the move before any new QE
