Powell has repeatedly emphasized that the Fed will make decisions meeting by meeting, not influenced by market expectations for rate cuts, nor consider any political factors and issues, but instead take action at a "speed appropriate to the current (data) or slow or fast."

Compiled by: Du Yu

Source: Wall Street News

Powell's intention is to emphasize, first, that any decision to cut interest rates by Fed officials will be based on the current economic situation and data, and that the balance of risks between the two major missions of inflation and employment has reached equilibrium, so it is time to start cutting interest rates to boost the labor market.

Second, the Fed will make decisions meeting by meeting, not influenced by market expectations for rate cuts, nor consider any political factors and issues, but instead take action at a "speed appropriate to the current situation, whether fast or slow."

Third, Powell does not believe that a substantial rate cut indicates that a US economic recession is imminent, nor does it indicate that the labor market is on the brink of collapse. The rate cut is more of a preventive action, aimed at maintaining the "robust" status of the economy and labor market.

Fourth, he acknowledges that non-farm employment may be revised downward, but it is still an important data point worth considering. Other labor force data that the Fed is concerned about include: unemployment rate, employment rate, wage growth, ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons, resignation rate, and other indicators.

The key point is that "the issue is not the level of specific numbers," but that the situation has changed in the past few months, with the upward risk of US inflation indeed decreasing and the downward risk of employment increasing, so the Fed is now adjusting its policy stance to support employment.

Below is the full transcript of Powell's press conference after the Fed's significant interest rate cut in September, as compiled by Wall Street News:

Question 1: Strong third quarter GDP running 3% so what changed to made the committee go 50. And how do you respond to the concerns that perhaps it shows the Fed is more concerned about the labor market, and I guess should we expect more 50s in the months ahead? And based on what should we make that call?

Answer 1:

Let me jump in. So since the last meeting, we have had a lot of data come in. We've had the two employment reports July and August. We've also had two inflation reports, including one that came in during blackout. We had the QCW report, which suggests that the payroll report numbers that we're getting may be artificially high and will be revised down. You know that we've also seen that anecdotal data like the Beige Book, so we took all of those, and we went into blackout, and we thought about what to do, and we cleared that this was the right thing for the economy, for the people that we serve, and that's how we made our decision. So that's one question.

So a couple things, a good place to start is the SEP. But let me start with what I said, which was that we're going to be making decisions, meeting by meeting, based on the incoming data, the evolving outlook, the balance of risks. If you look at the SEP, you'll see that it's a process of recalibrating our policy stance, away from where we had a year ago, when inflation was high and unemployment low, to a place that's more appropriate given where we are now and where we expect to be. And that process will take place over time. There's nothing in the SEP that suggests the committee is in a rush to get this done. This this process evolves over time.

Certainly, that's a forecast. It's a baseline forecast. As I mentioned in my remarks, the actual actions we take will depend on the way the economy evolves. We can go quicker, if that's appropriate, we can go slower if that's appropriate. We can pause if that's appropriate. But that's what we're contemplating. Again, I would point you to the SEP as just an assessment of where, what the committee is thinking today, but the individual members, rather, of the committee, are thinking today, assuming that their particular forecasts take, you know, are realized.

Question 2: The projections show that the Fed officials expect the Fed funds rate to still be above their estimate of long run neutral by the end of next year. So does that suggest you see rates as restrictive for that entire period? Does that threaten the weakening of the job market you said you'd like to avoid, or does it suggest that maybe people see the short run neutral as a little bit higher?

Answer 2:

I would really characterize it as this. I think people write down their estimate. Individuals do. I think every single person on the committee, if you ask them, what's your level of certainty around that, and they would say there's a wide range where that could fall. So I think we don't know there are model based approaches and empirically based approaches that estimate what the neutral rate will be at any given time. But realistically, we know it by its works. So that leaves us in a place where we'll be, where we expect, in the base case, to be continuing to remove restriction, and we'll be looking at the way the economy reacts to that, and that will be guiding us in our thinking about the question that we're asking at every meeting, which is, is our policy stance the appropriate one?

We know that the policy stance we adopted in July of 2023 came at a time when unemployment was three and a half percent and inflation was 4.2%. Today, unemployment is up to 4.2%, inflation is down to a few tenths above 2%, so we know that it is time to recalibrate our policy to something that is more appropriate given the progress on inflation and on employment moving to a more sustainable level. So the balance of risks are now even, and this is the beginning of that process I mentioned, the direction of which is toward a sense of neutral, and we'll move as fast or as slow as we think is appropriate in real time, what you have is our individual accumulation of individual estimates of what that will be in the base case.

Question 3: How close was this in terms of the decision, you do have the first dissent by a governor since 2005 I think was the weight clearly in favor of a 50, or was this a very close decision?

Answer 3:

I think we had a good discussion. You know, if you go back, I talked about this at Jackson Hole, but I didn't address the question of the size of the cut. And I think we left it open going into blackout. And so there was a lot of discussion back and forth. Good diversity of division. Excellent discussion today. I think there was also broad support for the decision that the committee voted on. So I would add, though, look at the SEP all 19 of the participants wrote down multiple cuts this year, all 19. That's a big change from June, right? 17 of the 19 wrote down three or more cuts, and 10 of the 19 wrote down four more cuts. So, you know, there is a dissent, and there's a range of views, but there's actually a lot of common ground as well.

Question 4: on the pacing here, would you expect this to be running every other meeting?

Answer 4: Once we get into next year, we're going to take it meeting by meeting, as I mentioned, we would. There's no sense that the committee feels it's in a rush to do this. We made a good, strong start to this. And that's really, frankly, a sign of our confidence, confidence in inflation is coming down toward 2% on a sustainable basis. That gives us the ability we can, you know, make a good, strong start. But, and I'm very pleased that we did to me the logic of this, both from an economic standpoint and also from a risk management standpoint, was clear, but I think we're going to go carefully meeting by meeting and make our decisions as we go.

Once we get into next year, we're going to take it meeting by meeting, as I mentioned, we would. There's no sense that the committee feels it's in a rush to do this. We made a good, strong start to this. And that's really, frankly, a sign of our confidence, confidence in inflation is coming down toward 2% on a sustainable basis. That gives us the ability we can, you know, make a good, strong start. But, and I'm very pleased that we did to me the logic of this, both from an economic standpoint and also from a risk management standpoint, was clear, but I think we're going to go carefully meeting by meeting and make our decisions as we go.

Question 5: Your colleagues in your economic projections today see the unemployment rate climbing to 4.4% and staying there, obviously, historically, when the unemployment rate climbs that much over a relatively short period of time, it doesn't typically just stop. It continues increasing. And so I wonder if you can walk us through why you see the labor market stabilizing sort of, what's the mechanism there, and what do you see as the risks?

Answer 5:

So again, the labor market is actually in solid condition, and our intention with our policy move today is to keep it there. You can say that about the whole economy. The US economy is in good shape. It's growing at a solid pace. Inflation is coming down. The labor market is in a strong pace. We want to keep it there that's what we're doing.

Question 6: "New Fed Communications" Nick Timiraos' question, given the recent large revisions to employment data, does today's action constitute a catch-up, or is this larger-than-typical rate cut a result of the nominal level of the policy rate rising, and therefore can we expect the pace of rate cuts to continue to accelerate?

Answer 6:

multiple questions in every list. So I would say we don't think we're behind. We do not think we're. We think this is timely, but I think you can take this as a sign of our commitment not to get behind. So it's a strong move.

I think it's about we come into this with a policy position that was put in place. As you know, I mentioned in July of 2023 which was a time of high inflation and very low unemployment, we've been very patient about reducing the policy rate. We've waited. Other central banks around the world have cut many of them several times. We've waited, and I think that that patience has really paid dividends in the form of our confidence that inflation is moving sustainably under 2% so I think that is what enables us to take this strong move today.

I do not think that anyone should look at this and say, Oh, this is the new pace. You know, you have to think about it in terms of the base case. Of course, what happens will happen. So in the base case, what you see is, look at the SEP you see cuts moving along. The sense of this is we're recalibrating policy down over time to a more neutral level, and we're moving at the pace that we think is appropriate given developments in the economy. And the base case, the economy can develop in a way that would cause us to go faster or slower, but that's what the base case says.

I believe that no one should look at this and say, "Oh, (50 basis point rate cut), this is the new pace." You know, you have to think about it in terms of the base case. Of course, what happens will happen. So in the base case, what you see is, look at the SEP, you see cuts moving along. The sense of this is we're recalibrating policy down over time to a more neutral level, and we're moving at the pace that we think is appropriate given developments in the economy. And the base case, the economy can develop in a way that would cause us to go faster or slower, but that's what the base case says.

Question 7: If I could follow up on the balance sheet in 2019 when you did the mid cycle adjustment, you ceased the balance sheet runoff with a larger cut. Today, is there any should there be any signal inferred about how the committee would approach end state on the balance sheet policy?

Answer 7:

So in the current situation, reserves have really been stable. They haven't come down. So reserves are still abundant and expected to remain so for some time. As you know, the shrinkage in our balance sheet has really come out of the overnight. RFP, so I think what that tells you is we're not thinking about stopping runoff because of this at all. We know that these two things can happen side by side, in a sense, they're both a form of normalization. And so for a time, you can have the balance sheet shrink, you would also be cutting rates.

Question 8: Just following up on rising unemployment, is it your view that this is just a function of a normalizing labor market? amid improved supply, or is there anything to suggest that something more concerning, perhaps is taking place here given that other metrics of labor demand have softened. is do you not? Why should we not expect a further deterioration in labor market conditions if policy is still restricted?

Answer 8:

So I think what we're seeing is clearly labor market conditions have cooled off by any measure, as I talked about in Jackson Hole and but they're still at a level. The level of those conditions is actually pretty close to what I would call maximum employment, you know. So you're close to mandate, maybe at mandate on that. So what's driving it? Clearly, payroll job creation has moved down over the last few months, and this bears watching, meant by many other measures, the labor market has returned to or below 2019 levels, which was a very good, strong labor market, but this is more sort of 2018, 2017. So the labor market bears close watching, and we'll be giving it that but ultimately, we think, we believe, with an appropriate recalibration of our policy that we can continue to see the economy growing and that will support the labor market in the meantime, if you look at the growth and economic activity data, retail sales data that we just got, second quarter GDP, all of this indicates an economy that is still growing at a solid pace, So that should also support the labor market over time.

It is clear that labor market conditions have cooled off by any measure, as I talked about in Jackson Hole, but they're still at a level. The level of those conditions is actually pretty close to what I would call maximum employment, you know. So you're close to mandate, maybe at mandate on that. So what's driving it? Clearly, payroll job creation has moved down over the last few months, and this bears watching, meant by many other measures, the labor market has returned to or below 2019 levels, which was a very good, strong labor market, but this is more sort of 2018, 2017. So the labor market bears close watching, and we'll be giving it that but ultimately, we think, we believe, with an appropriate recalibration of our policy that we can continue to see the economy growing and that will support the labor market in the meantime, if you look at the growth and economic activity data, retail sales data that we just got, second quarter GDP, all of this indicates an economy that is still growing at a solid pace, So that should also support the labor market over time.

So we're, that's, you know, our plan, of course, has been to begin to recalibrate, and we're not seeing rising claims, we're not seeing rising layoffs, we're not seeing that, and we're not hearing that from companies that that's something that's getting ready to happen. So we're not waiting for that because, you know, there is thinking that the time to support the labor market is when it's strong, and not when you begin to see the White House. There's some more on that. So that's the situation we're in. We have, in fact, begun the cutting cycle now, and we'll be watching, and that will be one of the factors that we consider. Of course, we're going to look at the totality of the data as we make these decisions, meeting by meeting.

Question 9: what would constitute for you and the committee a deterioration in the labor market you're pricing in, basically, by the end of next year, 200 basis points of cuts just to maintain a higher unemployment Rate. Would you be moving to a more preemptive monetary policy style, rather than, as you did with inflation, waiting until the data gave you a signal

Answer 9:

We're going to be watching all of the data, right? So if, as I mentioned in my remarks, if the labor market were to slow unexpectedly, then we have the ability to react to that by cutting faster. We're also going to be looking at our other mandate. Though we have greater confidence now that inflation is moving down to 2% but at the same time, our plan is that we will be at 2% over time. So and policy we think is still restrictive, so that should still be happening.

I'm just curious as to how sensitive you'll be to the labor market, since you forecast we are going to see higher unemployment, and it is going to take a significant amount of monetary easing to just maintain it.

Sure. So start with unemployment, which is the single most important one. Probably you're at 4.2% that's, you know, I know that's higher than we were. We were used to seeing numbers in the mid and even below mid threes last year. But if you look back over the sweep of the years, that's a low, that's a very healthy unemployment rate. And anything in the low fours is, A, really, is a good labor market. So that's one thing. Participation is at high levels, it's, you know, we've had, we're right adjusted for demographics, for aging, participation, said, at pretty high levels, that's a good thing. Wages are still a bit above what would be their wage increases. Rather, are still just a bit above where they would be over the very longer term to be consistent with 2% inflation, but they're very much coming down to what that sustainable level is. So we feel good about that. Vacancies over per unemployed is back to what is still a very strong level. It's not as high as it was. That number reached two to one, two vacancies for every unemployed person as measured, it's now around one, but that's still, that's still a very good number. I would say quits have come back down to normal levels. I mean, that could go on and on there.

We've only been running a little above 100,000 jobs a month on payrolls for the last three months. Do you view that level of job creation as worrying or alarming, or would you be content if we were to kind of stick at that level? And relatedly, one of the welcome trends over the last couple of years has been labor market steam coming out through job openings, falling rather than job losses. Do you think that trend has further to run? Or do you see risk that further labor market cooling will have to come through job losses?

So on the job creation, it depends on the inflows, right? So if you're having millions of people come into the labor force then, and you're creating 100,000 jobs, you're going to see unemployment go up. So it really depends on what's the trend underlying the volatility of people coming into the country. We understand there's been quite an influx across the borders, and that has actually been one of the things that's allowed unemployment rate to rise as and the other thing is just the slower hiring rate, which is something we also watch carefully. So it does depend on what's happening on the supply side and on the curve.

So we all felt on the committee, not all, but I think everyone on the committee felt that job openings were so elevated that they could fall a long way before you hit the part of the curve where job openings turned into higher unemployment, job loss. And yes, I mean, I think we are. It's hard to know that. You can't know these things with great precision, but certainly it appears that we're very close to that point, if not at it so that further declines in job openings will translate more directly into into unemployment. But it's been, it's been a great ride down. I mean, we've seen a lot of of tightness come out of the labor market in that form without it resulting in lower employment.

So this is a question. You mean, after we get through all of this, it's just great question that we just we can only speculate about. Intuitively, most many, many people anyway, would say we're probably not going back to that era where there were trillions of dollars of sovereign bonds trading at negative rates, long term bonds trading at negative rates. And it looked like the neutral rate was might even be negative. So there was people were issuing debt, issuing debt at negative rates. It seems that's so far away. Now, my own sense is that that we're not going back to that, but you know, honestly, we're going to find out. But you know, it feels, it feels to me and that the neutral rate is is probably significantly higher than it was back then. How high is it? I just don't think we know it's again, we only know it by its works.

We can only speculate about this. Intuitively, most people would say we're probably not going back to that era where there were trillions of dollars of sovereign bonds trading at negative rates, long-term bonds trading at negative rates. And it looked like the neutral rate might even be negative. So there were people issuing debt at negative rates. It seems that's so far away. Now, my own sense is that we're not going back to that, but honestly, we're going to find out. But it feels to me that the neutral rate is probably significantly higher than it was back then. How high is it? I just don't think we know it's again, we only know it by its works.

Yeah, so, you know, this is my fourth presidential election at the Fed, and you know, it's always the same. We're always going into this meeting in particular and asking, what's the right thing to do for the people we serve. And we do that, and we make a decision as a group, and then we announce it, and it's that's always what it is. It's never about anything else. Nothing else is discussed. And I would also point out that the things that we do really affect economic conditions for the most part with a lag. So nonetheless, this is what we do. Our job is to support the economy on behalf of the American people, and if we get it right, this will benefit the American people significantly. So this really concentrates the mind, and it's something we all take very, very seriously. We don't put up any other filters. I think if you start doing that, I don't know where you stop. And so we just want to do that.

My first question is, very simply, what message are you trying to send American consumers, the American people with this unusually large rate cut?

I would just say that the US economy is in a good place and our decision today is designed to keep it there. More specifically, the economy is growing at a solid pace. Inflation is coming down closer to our 2% objective over time, and the labor market is still in solid shape. So our intention is really to maintain the strength that we currently see in the US economy, and we'll do that by returning rates from their high level, which has really been the purpose of which has been to get inflation under control. We're going to move those down over time to a more normal level over time.

Just a follow up to that, listening to you talk about inflation moving meaningfully down to 2% is the Federal Reserve effectively declaring a decisive victory over inflation and rising prices.

The translation results are as follows:

No, we're not so inflation. You know what we say is we want inflation. The goal is to have inflation move down to 2% on a sustainable basis. And, you know, we're not really, we're close, but we're not really at 2% and I think we're going to want to see it be, you know, around 2% and close to 2% for some time, but we're certainly not doing, we're not we're not saying mission accomplished or anything like that. But I have to say, though we're encouraged by the progress that we have made.

Yeah, so housing inflation is the is the one piece that is kind of dragging a bit. If I can say we know that market rents are doing what we would want them to do, which is to be moving up at relatively low levels, but they're not rolling over that the leases that are rolling over are not coming down as much, and OER is coming in high. So, you know, it's been slower than we expected. I think we now understand that it's going to take some time for those lower market rents to get into this. But, you know, the direction of travel is clear, and as long as market rents remain, you know, relatively low inflation over time that will show up just the time it's taking now, several years, rather than just one or two cycles of of annual lease renewals. So that's, I think we understand that now, I don't think the outcome is in doubt again. As long as market rents remain under control, the outcome is not as in doubt. So I would say it's the rest of the rest of the portfolio, of the elements that go into core, PCE, inflation or have behaved pretty well. You know, they're all they all have some volatility. We will get down to 2% inflation, I believe, and I believe that ultimately, we'll get what we need to get out of the housing services piece too, some of your colleagues have experienced concern.

It's hard to gain that out. The housing market is in part frozen because of lock in with low rates. People don't want to sell their homes, so because they have a very low mortgage to be quite expensive to refinance. As rates come down, people will start to move more, and that's probably beginning to happen already. But remember, when that happens, you've got a you've got a seller, but you've also got a new buyer, in many cases. So it's not, you know, obvious how much additional demand that would make me the real issue with housing is that we have had and are on track to continue to have not enough housing. And so it's going to be challenging. It's hard to find to zone lots that are in places where people want to live. It's all of the aspects of housing are more and more difficult. And you know, where are we going to get the supply? And this is not something that the Fed can can really fix, but I think as we normalize rates, you'll see the housing market normalize. And I mean ultimately, by getting inflation broadly down and getting those rates normalized and getting the housing housing cycle normalized, that's the best thing we can do for householders. And then the supply question will have to be dealt with by the market and also by government.

Even, you know, how likely is this to happen? How would you deal with the real estate market? It's hard to know. The housing market (supply) is in part frozen because of lock-in with low rates. People don't want to sell their homes because they have a low mortgage rate, and refinancing would be quite expensive. As rates come down, people will start to move more, and this is probably already beginning to happen. But remember, when this happens, you have a seller, but in many cases, you also have a new buyer. So, you know, it's not obvious how much additional demand that would make. The real issue with housing is that we have had and are on track to continue to have not enough housing. So this will be a challenge. It's hard to find zoned lots in places where people want to live. All aspects of housing are becoming more and more difficult. You know, where are we going to get the supply? This is not something that the Fed can really fix, but I think as we normalize rates, you will see the housing market normalize. I mean ultimately, by getting inflation broadly down, normalizing those rates, and normalizing the housing cycle, that's the best thing we can do for households. Then the supply question will have to be dealt with by the market and also by the government.

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