Fed's Goolsbee: Job market seems to be cooling, inflation is going up

In the week ending September 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 218,000, a decrease of 14,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous ...

Durable goods orders in the United States increased by 2.9% in August compared to the previous month, amounting to $312.1 billion, according to a report published by the Census ...

Thank you for the invitation to join you this morning. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you, and I look forward to our discussion. I will spend most of my time speaking about the Fed’s role as a supervisor and regulator of the nation’s banking system, but with the recent Federal Open Market Committee meeting attracting much attention, I will first offer a few words on last week’s monetary policy decision and my thoughts on the outlook for policy going forward. As I am sure you are all aware, the FOMC lowered its target policy rate by 25 basis points last week. I supported this decision. Let me explain my thinking. In setting policy, I, like other members of the FOMC, am guided by the Fed’s congressionally determined dual mandate of price stability and full employment. Currently, we are close to meeting this mandate, and as close as we have been for some time. Inflation is running around 2½ percent, which is above but near the Fed’s 2 percent definition of price stability. Looking through the effects of declining energy prices, inflation has been closer to 3 percent. The unemployment rate in August was 4.3 percen *SCHMID: INFLATION REMAINS TOO HIGH, LABOR MKT. STILL IN BALANCE *FED'S SCHMID SAYS LABOR MARKET SHOWED RISK OF ABRUPT WEAKENING *SCHMID: QUARTER-POINT CUT WAS REASONABLE RISK-MANAGEMENT MOVE Fed's Schmid: Fed policy is slightly restrictive; which is the right place to be. Fed's Schmid: Going forward will be data-dependent on monetary policy choices