Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said yesterday, “I think that we’ve got a good plan in place. We could very well do 75 in September. My mind is not made up. I do know that we need to be increasing interest rates up to a substantially higher level than where they are now.”
“I think the precise path is less important than just constantly telling people, we’re on this path, this is what we’re going to do, inflation is job one, we’re going to handle this,” Evans said.
“Unemployment is 3.7% right now. I’m optimistic that we’re going to be able to navigate this and keep unemployment to about 4.5% by the time we’re done,” he said. “That would still be a pretty good outcome, although it will be costly for some.”
“I would prefer to find an appropriate spot to pause and monitor how things are going, rather than go much higher — potentially overshoot,” he said. “I wouldn’t say that I’m advocating sort of pausing at 3.5%, because I think 4 is more likely.”
