Comments from Evan's from Flint, Michigan
Fed's Charles Evans is speaking in Flint Michigan. He says:
- It's unusual for the president to comment on monetary policy, but asking why rates needs to rise is a fair question
- At the moment US economy is doing quite well on unemployment, inflation
- Sees 3.2% in 2018 and slowing to 2.5% in 2019
- expects unemployment rate to bottom at 3.5%, then to rise slowly to about 4.5%
- wages are higher but not up by as much as you might expect
- got a little bit more go to rates before reaching neutral of 2.75%-3%. (the current rate is 2% to 2 1/4%)
- extremely pleased at where inflation is at the moment
- there are probably more losers and winners with tariffs
- not a problem if inflation a bit above or below 2%
- Impact of tariffs may only be a few tenths of a percentage point on growth
- US national debt levels are manageable
- If US debt levels weren't manageable, rates would rise
Evan's is a dove and his comments are more along those lines.
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