Peter's Blog

Anna Paulson, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, delivered opening remarks at the 10th Annual Fintech Conference in Philadelphia on September 24th, noting explicitly that her views are her own, “not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve System or the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).” Paulson said she supported the FOMC’s […]

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Tom Barkin delivered a speech titled “Why Hike?” to the CFA Society Baltimore on September 22nd, discussing the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) recent rate hike of 25 basis points. The move marked the Fed’s first rate increase since mid-2023 and its first policy action of any kind since […]

Austan Goolsbee, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, delivered remarks on September 21st at the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum in London that challenged one of the central tenets of modern monetary policy. Goolsbee argued that the post-1970s doctrine of “looking through” supply-driven price shocks needs revision, stating plainly that […]

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller told Reuters on September 3rd that inflation “remains meaningfully above” the Federal Open Market Committee’s 2 percent goal, even as he pointed to what he called recent signs of disinflation. The remarks, delivered at a Reuters NEXT Newsmaker Interview in Washington, D.C., come less than two weeks before the FOMC’s […]

Even as inflation continues to run well above the central bank’s stated 2% target, the Fed’s latest decision was to hold interest rates steady. The meeting’s minutes were released on Wednesday, August 19th, offering a glimpse into the Fed governors’ perspectives on the economy and their role in it. Three regional Fed presidents, Beth Hammack, […]

The Federal Open Market Committee left its target range for the federal-funds rate unchanged at 3.50 to 3.75 percent on July 29, opting for continuity even as price pressures refuse to cool. The 9-3 vote, only Chairman Kevin Warsh’s second FOMC meeting as chairman, preserves a policy mix that pairs flat rates with what officials […]

In his first appearance before the House Financial Services Committee on July 14, new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh took a firm stance, telling lawmakers that the central bank has “no tolerance for persistently elevated inflation.” Warsh confirmed that June’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting left the federal-funds-rate target unchanged at 3.50 to 3.75 percent, […]

The Federal Reserve’s July Monetary Policy Report, delivered to Congress last week, describes an economy running hotter than officials would like even as growth cools at the edges. Total personal-consumption-expenditure (PCE) prices are up 4.1 percent over the past twelve months, and the core gauge sits at 3.4 percent, both well above the central bank’s […]

The Federal Open Market Committee’s minutes from its June 16 and 17 meeting, released this week, add detail to a decision markets absorbed weeks ago: the Committee held its target range at 3.50 to 3.75 percent by a unanimous vote. That unanimity, however, masked real disagreement underneath. A few participants told colleagues they saw a […]

Peter recently joined Peter Gadsdon from the Mining Network to discuss a grab-bag of issues, from the latest showdown between the Fed and the White House to why gold is still the best hedge against a weakening dollar. He walks listeners through recent inflation readings — including the CPI for December — and ties those […]