Powell Jan 11 2022
  • The main thing we can do is foster a strong employment market, consistent with our inflation mandate
  • In order to get a long expansion, we need price stability
  • We will use our tools to bring inflation back down
  • There are great benefits of a tight labor market
  • It is really time for us to move away from emergency settings
  • Doing so should not have a negative impact on labor market
  • We're not seeing the progress on supply-side issues that we thought -- that all forecasters thought
  • Over time inflation will subside, but the question is how fast
  • Inflation will last until the middle of this year
  • Fed has not made any decisions on the timing of normalization
  • This year I expect the Fed will raise rates, end asset purchases and perhaps later this year allow the balance sheet to shrink
  • We're going to learn a lot about the path of inflation
  • It will take 2-4 meetings to work through balance sheet decision (4th meeting is June 15)
  • Expects to see some relief on supply side later this year; if not there's a risk of inflation becoming entrenched
  • We believed we would see material relief on the supply side

On the balance sheet, Powell is sounding less hawkish than many of his colleagues.