Fed Chair Jerome Powell said yesterday that “it’s not yet clear whether the Delta strain will have important effects on the economy; we’ll have to see about that.” While COVID is “still with us,” he said, “people and businesses have improvised and learned to adapt.”
The pandemic is “still casting a shadow on economic activity. We cannot declare victory yet,” Powell said. But “many companies … have adapted their business models to the new world,”
Separately, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said it’s “reasonable” to start tapering later this year. “There’s a lot of public discussion about, will it be at the end of this year, will it be the beginning of next year: Those seem like reasonable ranges of deliberation, but ultimately it will be driven by the data,” he added.
