Remarks by NY Fed president, John Williams, to the Wall St Journal

  • Fed's bond buying is an important part of monetary policy
  • It is designed to help the economy recover from the pandemic impact
  • Does not see higher valuations in stocks, housing market as being a significant risk to financial stability right now
  • Expects inflation to rise above 2% this year but likely will be temporary
  • Not going to draw a line on how high inflation could rise to prompt policy change
  • Fed has the ability to respond in case inflation gets too high a level
  • Full transcript

In short, he is mainly reaffirming that the Fed put is still in play and that they don't see anything wrong with leaving the punch bowl as it is now.

The remarks on inflation is pretty much what you'd expect for now, though there have been some hawkish undertones from other Fed speakers lately - namely Kaplan here.