Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin in a Reuters interview, “it is a straightforward call to say we ought to get rates back into better position. It does not feel to me like there is enough information to say holy cow we have to restrain the economy right now.”
Barkin added that the federal funds rate should be raised back to where it was just before the pandemic, that is, a range of 1.50-1.75%. “Pre-pandemic levels are the place to reassess. Where we were pre-pandemic was under every member of the (Federal Open Market Committee’s) assessment of where neutral was,” he said.
“Then we can look around and say do you want to then start to move into the range … where we are starting to restrain?”
