On Monday, in a speech at the New York Association for Business Economics, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller discussed the U.S. economic outlook and the implications for “monetary policy at a crossroads.” His remarks were more hawkish than many observers expected. Indeed, he’s the first voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to publicly articulate a conditional path toward rate hikes this year – if we see another “hot” inflation reading. And on Tuesday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the June Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation data. The headline figure cooled ... (full story)