Key Points
- Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that weakness in the labor market is outweighing concerns about stubborn inflation, leading to a decision to lower the central bank’s key interest rate last week.
- “This policy stance, which I see as still modestly restrictive, leaves us well positioned to respond to potential economic developments,” he added in a speech delivered in Rhode Island.
- Powell is presiding over a Fed that has come under intense criticism from the White House and is seeing an unusually wide dispersion in views among officials.
