Here is the key line in the article:
“I am worried about the labor market,” Hammack said. But looking at the balance between the labor market and inflation, “we’ve got this persistent high inflation that is sticking around, when all is said and done it will be the better part of a decade.”
This is nothing new from Hammack, who has staked out the hawkish ground.
- “There are a lot of contracts to get renegotiated when you get to the beginning of the year. And so it could be that we see pricing come through."
- Says inflation pressure is coming from services and not from imported goods
- “It’s hard for me to see that core services [aside from] housing is being driven by tariffs"
- She wouldn’t be as concerned about high prices if inflation were just one-tenth or two-tenths away from the 2% target. “But right now we’re at 3%,” she said.
- “I do not currently put high odds of a labor-market downturn"
- “At this point, I don’t think there is more that monetary policy can do (for the jobs market)"
Another notable line
“If you read some of the market participant chatter, some of them are talking about, well, maybe what the Fed means by its target is just below 3%, and that getting it all the way to 2% is not a priority,” she said. “To me, getting it back to 2% is critical for our credibility, and that’s our objective.”
