Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said yesterday, “as I talk to participants in the economy, what I hear is they actually want us to do something now about inflation. They’d like us to get back to at least a normal interest-rate posture and not be simulating more demand on top of normal levels. So, I don’t hear much resistance to that.”

“I’d like us to be better positioned,” Barkin said. “Better positioned is somewhere closer to neutral, certainly, than we are now and I think the pace of that just depends on the pace of inflation.”

Atlanta Fed Bank President Raphael Bostic said, 50bps hike in March was “not my preferred policy action.” He added, “I had three rate increases in mind. March is looking like the right time” to get that started. From there, however, “we are not on any set progression.”

“We are going to need to be thinking very carefully about how things are going, how the economy responds to our first moves,” Bostic said. “We are not set on any particular trajectory. The data will tell us what is happening.”

San Francisco Fed Bank President Mary Daly said “we definitely are poised for a March increase.” But she added, “after that, I want to see what the data brings us … let’s get through Omicron, let’s look at this and let’s see.”

“If the economy progresses like I see it progressing, then it is clear that it can stand on its own two feet, that we do not need to be providing the same level of extraordinary … accommodation that we provided during the pandemic and have provided for the last two years,” Daly said.

Kansas City Fed President Esther George said Fed’s policy normalization approach could be more aggressive on balance sheet reduction, rather than faster rate hikes.

“What we do on the balance sheet is likely to affect the path of policy rates and vice versa,” George said during an event “For example, if we took more aggressive action on lowering, pulling down that balance sheet, it might allow for fewer interest rate increases.”

He added that raising short-term interest rate while maintaining a large balance sheet “could flatten the yield curve”, and lead to “reach-for-yield behavior from long-duration investors.”

“All in all, it could be appropriate to move earlier on the balance sheet relative to the last tightening cycle,” she said.

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said in an FT interview that “every option is on the table” for every FOMC meeting. “If the data say that things have evolved in a way that a 50 basis point move is required or be appropriate, then I’m going to lean into that . . . If moving in successive meetings makes sense, I’ll be comfortable with that,” he said.

“The reduction of accommodation should translate into tighter financial markets,” Bostic said. “The developments that we’ve seen on that front are comforting in the sense that markets are still functioning the way they’re supposed to, and they are responding to conditions in ways that are rational and appropriate.” He also supports starting the runoff of the USD 9T balance sheet “as quickly as” possible without impairing market functioning.

“Our policy path is not a constriction path. It’s a less accommodative path,” he said. “If we do the three [rate hikes] that I have in mind, that’ll still leave our policy in a very accommodative space. “I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of constraint on growth as we remove these emergency actions.”