Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari told CNBC, “We have a job to do. We know that raising rates can put a lid on inflation. We need to raise rates aggressively to put a ceiling on inflation, then let monetary policy work its way through the economy.”

Last week’s job data a “tells me that so far we’re not seeing much of an imprint of our tightening to date on the labor market. There’s some evidence that it’s having some effect, but it’s pretty muted so far,” Kashkari said.

“I haven’t seen anything yet to lower my rate path, but I’m obviously keeping my eyes open and we’ll see how the data comes in,” he added.

Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester told Reuters, “I would need to see monthly numbers coming down in a compelling way before I would want to conclude we could now rest” on raising interest rates.

“The risks to inflation are skewed to the upside and the cost of allowing that inflation to continue is high,” she said, an argument for the Fed “doing more upfront rather than waiting.”

“I don’t think it (inflation) will get back to 2% next year. But it will be well on its way, in the range of two and half percent but moving in the right direction,” she said. “And given where the economy is and all the factors affecting inflation that are outside of our realm, that is acceptable to me.”

Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said, “we’re committed to returning inflation to our 2% target and we’ll do what it takes to get there. I’d expect inflation to bounce around on the way back to our target.” He didn’t expect inflation to “come down immediately”.

“A recession is obviously a risk in the process,” Barkin said. But, “it doesn’t have to be like a 2008 recession, it doesn’t have to be calamitous. We’re out of balance today…returning to normal might actually mean products on shelves, cars on lots and restaurants fully staffed.”

Comments from Fed officials yesterday generally suggested that interest rates are currently at the right place. There won’t be further rate cut unless outlook worsens materially.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said that the current 2020 baseline outlook suggests reasonable chance of “soft landing”. While growth is expected to slow, US is not facing a “sharper than anticipated” collapse. The three rate cuts in 2019 were “a substantial move”. “Now we should wait and see what the effects are in the first half of 2020 and beyond that,”

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said that “trade tensions with China don’t seem to be increasing, so that’s a positive.” That could “translate into more business investment”. He added that Fed’s rate cuts have “taken some of the recession risk off the table.””We think inflation is around the corner and then inflation doesn’t come because we raise rates prematurely,” he said. “Now that we’re in a pause mode I think we’re in a much better position.”

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said “I see the fundamentals as pretty good.” “If something were to happen that caused the economy to slow down and perhaps do worse than that then that would call for some type of response on the downward fashion. But I’m not expecting that”.

Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said federal funds rate at 1.50-1.75% is “a roughly appropriate setting.” GDP is expected to grow about 2% to 2.25% this year, “and if anything my growth outlook has firmed a bit in the last several weeks.” He also backed the view that rates should stay at current level unless there is “material” change in the outlook.

Fed Vice Chairman Richard Clarida reiterated that looking ahead, “monetary policy is not on a preset course”. FOMC will “proceed on a meeting-by-meeting basis to assess the economic outlook as well as the risks to the outlook.” Also, Fed will “act as appropriate to sustain growth and achieve dual mandate.

Clarida also repeated that the economy is “in a good place” and the “baseline outlook is favorable”. But the economy “confronts some evident risks”. In particular, he noted, ” Business fixed investment has slowed notably since last year, exports are contracting on a year-over-year basis, and indicators of manufacturing activity are weakening. Global growth estimates continue to be marked down, and global disinflationary pressures cloud the outlook for U.S. inflation.”

Clarida’s full speech here.

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said yesterday that a pause in tightening in September might be a good idea, because market responses had been “far stronger than what we’ve historically seen.” “I want to make sure I truly understand the pace of change that’s associated with our policy response,” Bostic said.

By September, some of the uncertainty over the economy could be resolved. Bostic expected that could lead to a “pretty significant reduction in inflation.”

Yet, he’s “fully comfortable” to raise interest rates above neutral if inflation doesn’t come down. “The goal is to get inflation down. We’ve got to really tackle it in an intentional, persistent way,” he said. “I want to be open to both possibilities.”

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said while interest at 3-3.25% is restrictive, ” with inflation as high as it is, and getting inflation under control being job one, it’s not nearly restrictive enough.”

“The risks continue to be high about more persistent inflation, and we just really need to get inflation in check,” Evans said.

Evans added that he expects interest rate to reach top by March.