Michael Barr is Vice Chair for Supervision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. As a member of the Board of Governors Barr has a permanent vote on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).
Earlier remarks here:
More now:
- Inflation is far too high
- Fed is quite focused on bringing inflation down to 2%
- We've moved quickly this year to restrictive territory
- We are now at a point where we can pay more attention to the rate we are getting to, less on pace
- We may shift to slower pace of rate increases at next meeting
- It's 'smart' to modulate on rate hike pace
- Current Fed policy is restrictive
- Broadly the view of colleagues that Fed policy is in restrictive territory now
- The question is how much more restrictive do we need to be to bring down inflation
- We have some work still to do
- We have more work to do on rates later this year and next year
- Asked about december fed meeting, says it makes sense to raise rates by 50 bps
- It makes sense to slow the pace
- We will have the ability going forward to moderate the pace as we get closer to ultimate fed policy rate
- It's a misreading to think changes of pace in rate hikes mean a change in commitment to 2% inflation target
- We have a lot of work to do, we are not there yet
- The fed policy rate will have to stay high for a long period of time
- It's critical that we stay in sufficiently restrictive territory to reach inflation target
- We are not thinking about loosening
- We are focused on getting to a sufficiently restrictive rate and staying there long enough to bring inflation to 2%
- We are not at all thinking about revising the 2% inflation target
- After we are through this inflationary period it makes sense to review the Fed's framework
- We are not close to being at that point
As Adam noted, Barr is basically parroting Powell on the policy outlook. Nothing in the above is a surprise to markets.
