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
