Powell says he can’t guarantee a ‘soft landing’ as the Fed looks to control inflation
“Our goal, of course, is to get inflation back down to 2% without having the economy go into recession, or, to put it this way, with the labor market remaining fairly strong,” he said. “That’s what we’re trying to achieve. I think the one thing we really cannot do is to fail to restore price stability, though. Nothing in the economy works, the economy doesn’t work for anybody without price stability.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/12/powell-says-he-cant-guarante…
After decades of Fed seat warmers and media talking heads chatter constantly about a “soft landing” and a “second half recovery”, and being wrong every time, Powell being this candid, sounds like he is getting himself fitted for a Volcker suit, as he is saying “softness” is not a priority.
So, of course, with Powell putting strangling inflation ahead of “jobs”, market futures are up. We could do a lot of onion peeling on these comments: public agenda, vs hidden agenda, vs other agendas that are publicly stated, but spun deceptively.
Steve