Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan told Reuters that, “as long as we continue to make progress in July numbers and in August jobs numbers, I think we’d be better off to start adjusting these purchases soon,” referring to the QE program.

He added that tapering over a time frame of “plus or minus” about eight months would help give the Fed ” as much flexibility as possible to be patient and be flexible on the Fed funds rate.”

He emphasized it’s “important to divorce discussion of the Fed funds rate from discussion of our purchases.” His comments on purchases are not intended to suggest I want to take more aggressive action on the Fed funds rate.”

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said yesterday that the US economic expansion “feels very sustainable” even though “clearly things are slowing a bit”. And, the economy “may just be gathering itself – there’s no reason why the expansion can’t continue”. He added “policy is not on a preset course” and reiterated “we will be data dependent, assessing the outlook and risks to the outlook on a meeting-by-meeting basis. He also noted Fed will soon announce measures to add to the supply of reserves over time. However, the balance sheet for reserve management purposes is “in no sense is this QE”.

Separately, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said “I wouldn’t mind another cut. I could see it either way”. “It would help for a little more insurance. Is it necessary and essential? I’m not sure. But I’m certainly open minded to those arguments,” he added. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said he was “generally in favor” of lower interest rates, but, “I don’t know how much lower they should go.”

Fed Governor Michelle Bowman said in a speech yesterday that she’s “mindful that the remaining benefits to the economy from our asset purchases are now likely outweighed by the potential costs.”

“Provided the economy continues to improve as I expect, I am very comfortable at this point with a decision to start to taper our asset purchases before the end of the year and, preferably, as early as at our next meeting in November,” she added.

Bowman also noted that the asset purchases have “essentially served their purpose.” She’s particularly concerned that “asset purchases could now be contributing to valuation pressures, especially in housing and equity markets.” The loose monetary policy could now “pose risks to the stability of longer-term inflation expectations.”

Full speech here.

Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester reiterated yesterday that Fed should “front-load” interest rate hikes in the first of of the year, and start quantitative tightening at the same time. “We have to recognize that inflation is very elevated. It is well above our goal. We have to do what we can with both our policy tools to get inflation under control,” she emphasized.

“I think we’re going to need to do some 50 basis-point moves,” Mester added. “I don’t want to presuppose every meeting from here to July, but I do think we need to be more aggressive earlier rather than later.”

In a Quora.com post, San Francisco Fed Mary Daly said the US is not headed towards a recessions right not. She saw “solid domestic momentum that points to a continued economic expansion:. Also, “the labor market is strong, consumer confidence is high, and consumer spending is healthy.”

But “considerable headwinds”, including global slowdown and trade uncertainties, contributed to fear that a “downturn is right around the corner”. Hence, she’s closely look at whether “fear of recession becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy”.

Daly added that recent rate cut was “appropriate recalibration” of policy in response to the headwinds. And, her support was “not because I see an impending downturn on the horizon.”