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Powell speech: With inflation so high, we can't wait too long for maximum employment

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in his post-Fed meeting press conference that with inflation so far above the Fed's 2.0% target, we can't wait too long to get back to maximum employment. 

Additional Takeaways:

"Inflation that we've got is not at all what we were looking for in our framework."

"This is not the inflation we were looking for."

"Wages are one thing to look at when assessing full employment."

"Quits rate is also a good signal of full employment goal."

"High quits rate suggests a very tight labor market."

"We have to make policy in real-time."

"The labor market is hotter than it ever ran in last expansion."

"The labor market is so many measures hotter than it was in the last expansion."

"Shock to labor force participation is not unwinding as quickly as had been expected."

"For so many reasons, labor force participation shock is not unwinding as many expected and much of it is voluntary."

"In some cases, it will abate once the pandemic recedes from view and participation rate will rise."

"The economy does not lack stimulus."

"The problem is a supply-side problem on labor and that will take time to work itself out."

"If the pandemic were under control, then we'd fully know what labor market can really look like, but that's not coming any time soon."

"We can only try and create conditions for a tight but stable labor market."

"High inflation is a threat to full employment as we need to maintain a long expansion."

Author

Joel Frank

Joel Frank

Independent Analyst

Joel Frank is an economics graduate from the University of Birmingham and has worked as a full-time financial market analyst since 2018, specialising in the coverage of how developments in the global economy impact financial asset

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