1 00:00:10,119 --> 00:00:14,160 Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. 2 00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:16,720 Speaker 2: I'm Joe Wisenthal and I'm Tracy Alloway. 3 00:00:16,840 --> 00:00:19,919 Speaker 1: Tracy, how about that? How about that Jolts report? 4 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:22,040 Speaker 2: How about them Jolts? 5 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:23,040 Speaker 1: About them jolts? 6 00:00:23,239 --> 00:00:23,479 Speaker 3: Uh? 7 00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:26,360 Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot stronger than expected, But I think there's 8 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:29,360 Speaker 2: there's a lot of uncertainty around jolts from what I remember. 9 00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:32,519 Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it's like a I mean, we're recording this 10 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:37,280 Speaker 1: October third. These are August Jolts, so you know already. 11 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:40,560 Speaker 1: I guess that's like two months ago. I'm always sort 12 00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:43,600 Speaker 1: of skeptical about job openings data, like what is it 13 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:47,800 Speaker 1: really measuring? But nonetheless, this is a measure the number 14 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:49,640 Speaker 1: of job openings that there are that people have been 15 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:53,080 Speaker 1: paying attention to. It had been coming down, it's jumped 16 00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:56,120 Speaker 1: back up, and then it just does raise this whole 17 00:00:56,200 --> 00:00:59,440 Speaker 1: question of like is the economy really sort of the 18 00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:02,840 Speaker 1: celery into a nice smooth, soft landing or are we 19 00:01:02,920 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 1: still really hot? 20 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:04,120 Speaker 4: Well? 21 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:06,360 Speaker 2: I know you were looking at jolts, but I've been 22 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:09,920 Speaker 2: watching the bond market, yes today, because the other big 23 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:13,760 Speaker 2: story in markets is, of course the big bond sell off. Yes, 24 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:16,559 Speaker 2: the thirty year treasury yield now at the highest since 25 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:19,040 Speaker 2: two thousand and seven, I think something like four point 26 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:21,759 Speaker 2: eight percent. Yeah, that's pretty crazy. And there's a lot 27 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:25,679 Speaker 2: of discussion right now over what is driving that long 28 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:28,759 Speaker 2: end sell off. Is it the higher for a longer 29 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:31,160 Speaker 2: stance that we saw from the Federal Reserve a couple 30 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:36,479 Speaker 2: of weeks ago, is it worries over supply, could be anything, really, right. 31 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:39,400 Speaker 1: We don't really know. And again, the moves that we're 32 00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:42,600 Speaker 1: seeing in rates really like across the curve, but yet 33 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:45,440 Speaker 1: really at the long end, like they do not scream 34 00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:48,440 Speaker 1: to me like we're in for a soft landing, right, 35 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:51,120 Speaker 1: They do not scream to me inflation is about to 36 00:01:51,160 --> 00:01:53,480 Speaker 1: come down back to target. The Fed is going to 37 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:56,360 Speaker 1: be is going to cut sometime soon, and we're going 38 00:01:56,440 --> 00:01:59,200 Speaker 1: to be, you know, back in like twenty eighteen, twenty 39 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:03,960 Speaker 1: nineteen Goldilock's territory. Like, we may get that, but it 40 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:06,160 Speaker 1: does not look like what the bond market. 41 00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:06,720 Speaker 3: Is saying right now. 42 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:09,520 Speaker 2: It screams uncertainty to me. Like if you look at 43 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:11,519 Speaker 2: the bond sell off and you look at what's going 44 00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:13,600 Speaker 2: on with jolts, it just seems like we are still 45 00:02:13,639 --> 00:02:17,679 Speaker 2: in this period where even three years after the absolute 46 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:20,640 Speaker 2: depths of the pandemic. It feels like we're not quite 47 00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:23,960 Speaker 2: sure how the economy is actually operating, what the impact 48 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:27,399 Speaker 2: of interest rates are, what's going on with inflation. It's 49 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:29,320 Speaker 2: come down, but we're not really sure if we can 50 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:31,600 Speaker 2: attribute that to the rate hikes or something else. 51 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:35,120 Speaker 1: You mentioned, by the way, the thirty year, but you know, 52 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:38,640 Speaker 1: mortgage thirty or mortgages they're coming on eight percent, so 53 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:40,880 Speaker 1: regardless or whatever I mean, like talk about a real 54 00:02:40,919 --> 00:02:44,040 Speaker 1: effect on rates and their effect on rates to the 55 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:47,440 Speaker 1: broader economy may be kind of ambiguous, but no, no, no certain. 56 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:50,680 Speaker 2: This is why I mentioned the thirty year yield because 57 00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:53,000 Speaker 2: this is the thing that mortgages are priced off of 58 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:57,120 Speaker 2: commercial paper, corporate debt. It is like a big benchmark 59 00:02:57,160 --> 00:02:58,160 Speaker 2: for the wider economy. 60 00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:01,160 Speaker 1: So I guess there's questions like what's going on and 61 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: can we achieve that soft landing are still like huge 62 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:05,560 Speaker 1: questions that are. 63 00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:06,240 Speaker 3: On everyone's mind. 64 00:03:06,520 --> 00:03:07,160 Speaker 2: Absolutely. 65 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:09,280 Speaker 1: You know what I think is a better term than 66 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:12,280 Speaker 1: soft landing, by the way, uh. 67 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:15,160 Speaker 2: No, Golden path, Golden path. 68 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:18,880 Speaker 1: The golden path, I think you know soft landing and knights, 69 00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:22,080 Speaker 1: but the golden path towards that sort of you know, 70 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:26,760 Speaker 1: low unemployment, low inflation, and our guest today recently gave 71 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:31,120 Speaker 1: a speech on the prospects of can we achieve that 72 00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:34,720 Speaker 1: golden path? Can we walk this golden path into the 73 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:37,320 Speaker 1: sort of economic nirvana that we all want to see? 74 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:39,560 Speaker 2: I know you brought up the golden path just than 75 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:42,240 Speaker 2: your new term, but I kind of read it as 76 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:45,800 Speaker 2: this time is different speech, and it takes like it's 77 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:48,640 Speaker 2: pretty brave to make a this time is different speech. 78 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:50,640 Speaker 2: But on the other hand, if any time is going 79 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:53,440 Speaker 2: to be different, it might actually be the period after 80 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:56,160 Speaker 2: the worst pandemic that we've seen in over one hundred. 81 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:59,360 Speaker 1: Years, right exactly. Well, rather than us speculating about whether 82 00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:02,000 Speaker 1: we can achieve the soft landing, or whether this time 83 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:04,560 Speaker 1: will be different, or whether we can walk down this 84 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:09,160 Speaker 1: golden path, let's bring onto the podcast. I'm very excited 85 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:11,600 Speaker 1: it's his first time on the show. But someone we've 86 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:14,960 Speaker 1: on to talk to forever Austin Goldsby, who is the 87 00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:19,960 Speaker 1: relatively new president of the Chicago Fed. Austin thrilled to 88 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:22,680 Speaker 1: have you on the show. I love that term golden path. 89 00:04:22,839 --> 00:04:25,080 Speaker 1: Can we continue to walk down it? Can we continue 90 00:04:25,080 --> 00:04:28,400 Speaker 1: to see disinflation with unemployment as low as it is. 91 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:33,320 Speaker 4: Ray see Joe, longtime listener, first time caller. Thank you 92 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:34,680 Speaker 4: for having me on. 93 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:35,320 Speaker 2: Thanks. 94 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:39,240 Speaker 4: I've been saying this golden path, I kind of few 95 00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:41,680 Speaker 4: it as that that would be the mother of all 96 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:46,799 Speaker 4: soft landings. Yeah, it's just the to get inflation down 97 00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:51,520 Speaker 4: as much as we need to get inflation down, and 98 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:55,720 Speaker 4: we're part of the way through without having a big recession. 99 00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:58,280 Speaker 4: As you know, there are a lot of economists who 100 00:04:58,279 --> 00:05:02,279 Speaker 4: said that is not poss I don't know that it's 101 00:05:02,320 --> 00:05:08,280 Speaker 4: still probable, but I have been highlighting it is possible 102 00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:12,839 Speaker 4: now for a variety of reasons that we might be 103 00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:16,960 Speaker 4: able to do it. And my recent speech was less 104 00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:22,640 Speaker 4: whether the golden path is possible and more like Tracy said, 105 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:25,960 Speaker 4: it wasn't really why this time is different. But I 106 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:29,400 Speaker 4: know that's a loaded term. Argument, that's a loaded term. 107 00:05:29,960 --> 00:05:35,839 Speaker 4: I was just making the argument why the intuition that 108 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:40,719 Speaker 4: going back and looking what things were like the last time, 109 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:45,320 Speaker 4: the unemployment way was three point seven percent. That's not 110 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:49,400 Speaker 4: a great that's not that accurate of a measure at 111 00:05:49,400 --> 00:05:54,040 Speaker 4: times when there are supply shocks bumping around, at times 112 00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:58,920 Speaker 4: when expectations are not unhinged like they were the last 113 00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:02,080 Speaker 4: time inflation got out of control in the nineteen seventies, 114 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:07,839 Speaker 4: and because of those differences, just be cautious about using 115 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:14,000 Speaker 4: lessons from past periods to be analyzing what's happening right now. 116 00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:17,960 Speaker 4: And you see it every month when the data come out. 117 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:21,640 Speaker 4: You'll see analysts look and say, ooh, the jolts ticked up. 118 00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:25,840 Speaker 4: That must mean we're overheating. And implicit in that is 119 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:29,680 Speaker 4: a logic that the last time the unemployment rate was 120 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:34,280 Speaker 4: low and inflation was high, it meant we were overheating. 121 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:38,680 Speaker 4: So I just want to be careful of using historical 122 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:41,960 Speaker 4: analogies that might not be totally appropriate. 123 00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:44,200 Speaker 2: I think that's totally fair and something that we've been 124 00:06:44,200 --> 00:06:47,440 Speaker 2: discussing on this podcast, the idea that everyone tends to 125 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:50,719 Speaker 2: reach for the vulgar period of high inflation as their 126 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:54,600 Speaker 2: preferred historical analogy, but of course there are others out there, 127 00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:58,680 Speaker 2: like what happened in the aftermath of the Spanish Flu. 128 00:06:58,760 --> 00:07:01,840 Speaker 2: We've spoken about that before. But Austin, maybe before we 129 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:03,920 Speaker 2: move on, can you just give us give us a 130 00:07:03,960 --> 00:07:06,599 Speaker 2: little snapshot of the speech that you gave, because you 131 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:10,440 Speaker 2: had this great series of charts in there which kind 132 00:07:10,440 --> 00:07:13,200 Speaker 2: of pointed out I know this time is different is 133 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:16,400 Speaker 2: not a preferred term, but you kind of pointed out that, well, 134 00:07:16,440 --> 00:07:21,040 Speaker 2: things have already been different compared to what traditional economic 135 00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:22,680 Speaker 2: theory would have suggested. 136 00:07:23,400 --> 00:07:29,000 Speaker 4: Yeah, look tremendously different. So the starting point, as I've 137 00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:32,360 Speaker 4: started with this anecdote about my grandfather, who was a 138 00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:36,800 Speaker 4: wise old guy, and he lived on a ranch in Abilene, Texas, 139 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:41,320 Speaker 4: and normally he was a great giver of life advice. 140 00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:44,360 Speaker 4: But when I took my first job, he wanted to 141 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:50,240 Speaker 4: call and tell me never buy stocks. And I, as 142 00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:52,720 Speaker 4: I said in this speech, I didn't know those my 143 00:07:52,840 --> 00:07:56,920 Speaker 4: grandpa jack efficient markets guy. I said, you don't buy 144 00:07:56,920 --> 00:08:00,680 Speaker 4: individual stocks. No, he said, don't buy any stocks. Your 145 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:03,360 Speaker 4: grandmother and I knew people that bought stocks. They lost 146 00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:09,880 Speaker 4: everything when the market crashed. And that idea that one 147 00:08:10,120 --> 00:08:15,200 Speaker 4: historical episode could live with you for sixty seventy years 148 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:19,840 Speaker 4: and influence your behavior, even when it's not necessarily the 149 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:24,880 Speaker 4: perfect lesson. There's a little element of that looking back 150 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:29,360 Speaker 4: to the Vocar episode or to past history and assuming 151 00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:32,160 Speaker 4: that there's a let's call it a stable Phillips curve 152 00:08:32,679 --> 00:08:37,040 Speaker 4: or something like that. So point one is when you 153 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:42,000 Speaker 4: have supply shocks going on negative or positive the normal 154 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:50,160 Speaker 4: relationship between the contemporaneous economic conditions and the future inflation, 155 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:55,280 Speaker 4: those relationships break down or they bend a lot. And 156 00:08:55,400 --> 00:09:01,720 Speaker 4: if you take kind of a traditional va are in 157 00:09:01,800 --> 00:09:05,400 Speaker 4: the academic language set up in which you just look 158 00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:11,880 Speaker 4: at the historical patterns of when they have monetary policy 159 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:17,800 Speaker 4: changes and then just look over the average what happens 160 00:09:17,880 --> 00:09:22,800 Speaker 4: in the quarters and the years that follow. I put 161 00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:26,920 Speaker 4: that up on a chart and it showed that you 162 00:09:27,160 --> 00:09:31,520 Speaker 4: usually have long legs to monetary policy. When they take 163 00:09:31,559 --> 00:09:35,480 Speaker 4: the monetary actions, it's really two years plus before you 164 00:09:35,559 --> 00:09:39,000 Speaker 4: get the full impact on the economy, and it leads 165 00:09:39,040 --> 00:09:44,319 Speaker 4: to big drops in GDP. And when inflation starts to drop, 166 00:09:44,480 --> 00:09:48,280 Speaker 4: it drops a lot, and it only starts dropping after 167 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:54,200 Speaker 4: the recession has begun. That's the normal historical pattern. And 168 00:09:54,360 --> 00:09:58,839 Speaker 4: if you look now, the same logic that says the 169 00:09:58,880 --> 00:10:01,960 Speaker 4: FED will not be able to pull off the golden 170 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:06,200 Speaker 4: path because past history shows that if you want to 171 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:09,720 Speaker 4: get inflation down a lot, you must have a serious 172 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:15,440 Speaker 4: trade off with economic performance. The last six months are impossible. Okay, 173 00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:20,680 Speaker 4: inflation has come down a lot, Employment really went up, 174 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:24,000 Speaker 4: didn't go down, and we haven't had any recession. So 175 00:10:24,400 --> 00:10:27,839 Speaker 4: if you looked at that graph, it's kind of the 176 00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:33,120 Speaker 4: predicted from nine months ago from what the FED has 177 00:10:33,240 --> 00:10:35,720 Speaker 4: done over the last year or year and a half. 178 00:10:37,840 --> 00:10:43,240 Speaker 4: What we've experienced looks nothing like the historical record. So, Teresa, 179 00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:46,600 Speaker 4: you can hear me resisting a little bit using the 180 00:10:46,640 --> 00:10:50,439 Speaker 4: phrase this time. I get it. It's just when supply 181 00:10:50,679 --> 00:10:54,480 Speaker 4: shocks are going on, there's no reason to think that 182 00:10:54,520 --> 00:10:59,760 Speaker 4: the historical relationship would be holding, and you would run 183 00:10:59,760 --> 00:11:05,280 Speaker 4: a danger of overshooting if you pay too close attention 184 00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:09,680 Speaker 4: to those kind of metrics. If you're looking at metrics 185 00:11:09,720 --> 00:11:13,360 Speaker 4: that say we must get the unemployment rate back to 186 00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:18,800 Speaker 4: four and a half percent, you're going to overshoot if 187 00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:21,600 Speaker 4: there are positive supply shocks or if the supply chain 188 00:11:21,640 --> 00:11:28,280 Speaker 4: is healing. And I do think that's extremely relevant on 189 00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:33,160 Speaker 4: any month of data separate from just individual months are noisy. 190 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:41,280 Speaker 4: I think this broader philosophical almost issue that the past 191 00:11:41,400 --> 00:11:44,120 Speaker 4: is not that great of a guide when you got 192 00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:48,960 Speaker 4: weird things happening, and the COVID business cycle was maybe 193 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:53,440 Speaker 4: the weirdest of all. We just need to keep that 194 00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:56,199 Speaker 4: in mind as we're deliberating and thinking this through. 195 00:11:56,720 --> 00:11:59,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, the way I like to think about this or 196 00:11:59,080 --> 00:12:02,800 Speaker 1: framness in my head is that the last six nine months, 197 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:06,880 Speaker 1: maybe a year, it shows that the golden path soft 198 00:12:06,960 --> 00:12:10,680 Speaker 1: landing is possible in practice, but there still seems to 199 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:15,320 Speaker 1: be a considerable, considerable debate about whether it's possible in theory. 200 00:12:16,040 --> 00:12:20,200 Speaker 1: And that's sort of within determine whether exactly whether we 201 00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:23,920 Speaker 1: get to target there is I mean, inflation is coming down. 202 00:12:23,960 --> 00:12:26,760 Speaker 1: The last core PCE print that we got I think 203 00:12:26,760 --> 00:12:29,920 Speaker 1: it was just this past Friday benign, but you know, 204 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:33,600 Speaker 1: most measure is still some heat. The story is, and 205 00:12:33,640 --> 00:12:35,800 Speaker 1: I think most economists have come around to it, most 206 00:12:35,840 --> 00:12:39,760 Speaker 1: of the improvement that we've seen in realized disinflation is 207 00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:44,440 Speaker 1: due to supply side healing. Is there more supply side healing? 208 00:12:44,640 --> 00:12:44,720 Speaker 3: Is? 209 00:12:44,880 --> 00:12:47,760 Speaker 1: Do you see that channel as having Are we are 210 00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:51,160 Speaker 1: we healed? Or do we need to see something on 211 00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:55,040 Speaker 1: the demand mitigation side? Like sort of the difference between 212 00:12:55,080 --> 00:12:57,600 Speaker 1: where we are right now on inflation and where like 213 00:12:57,679 --> 00:12:59,920 Speaker 1: the FED is like, Okay, we are comfortable, We've done that, 214 00:13:00,280 --> 00:13:05,040 Speaker 1: Like can that still be achieved through normalization? Whatever that means? 215 00:13:05,520 --> 00:13:07,760 Speaker 4: Well, I want to make two points here. One, let's 216 00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:11,240 Speaker 4: think about the supply side, but let's loop back and 217 00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:15,960 Speaker 4: think about the role of expectations in bringing inflation down, 218 00:13:15,960 --> 00:13:20,040 Speaker 4: because it's critically important and it's it's one of the 219 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:24,880 Speaker 4: other things that make our experience of twenty one, twenty 220 00:13:24,920 --> 00:13:29,199 Speaker 4: two to twenty three very different looking in the fundamentals 221 00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:34,360 Speaker 4: than the nineteen seventies and make our job different perhaps 222 00:13:34,400 --> 00:13:39,480 Speaker 4: than than the what the Volker moment was. On the 223 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:43,600 Speaker 4: supply side, I talked to a lot of business contacts 224 00:13:44,440 --> 00:13:47,320 Speaker 4: in the seventh District, you know, which is part of 225 00:13:47,320 --> 00:13:52,520 Speaker 4: the Midwest. It definitely has been substantial improvement on a 226 00:13:52,520 --> 00:13:55,920 Speaker 4: lot of supply chain. I think most measures of supply 227 00:13:56,040 --> 00:14:00,000 Speaker 4: chain say there's still some to come, and it's important 228 00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:05,400 Speaker 4: and remember when the supply chain fixes, it still works 229 00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:08,240 Speaker 4: its way through the economy. It's still going to take 230 00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:12,240 Speaker 4: some time to work its way through the inflation rate. 231 00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:15,640 Speaker 4: It's not going to be an instant adjustment of inflation 232 00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:19,880 Speaker 4: when the supply shocks. When the supply socks hit, So 233 00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:23,240 Speaker 4: I do think there's still some to come. And if 234 00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:25,880 Speaker 4: you go down in the weeds, if you take like 235 00:14:25,920 --> 00:14:28,800 Speaker 4: the New York Fed's Supply Chain Index, the New York 236 00:14:28,880 --> 00:14:33,720 Speaker 4: Fed uses historical data to make a prediction of what 237 00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:36,600 Speaker 4: are going to be the impacts on inflation, and their 238 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:41,800 Speaker 4: index shows that we've mostly returned to where we were 239 00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:49,120 Speaker 4: before COVID, but that there's still some material amount of 240 00:14:49,880 --> 00:14:53,240 Speaker 4: dropping inflation that will still come through that channel. So 241 00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:57,280 Speaker 4: I think both the anecdotes and the data tell you 242 00:14:57,320 --> 00:15:02,280 Speaker 4: that that's been improving. Now I feel okay because I 243 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:05,200 Speaker 4: ident what I'm about to say. I've been saying for 244 00:15:05,280 --> 00:15:09,440 Speaker 4: a long time that I put on the board here's 245 00:15:09,520 --> 00:15:12,880 Speaker 4: what we're going to need to see to believe that 246 00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:15,640 Speaker 4: we are still on the golden path. So I'm not 247 00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:19,120 Speaker 4: after the fact looking back and saying, oh, it was 248 00:15:19,160 --> 00:15:23,080 Speaker 4: a B and C. I said before the first thing 249 00:15:23,160 --> 00:15:28,480 Speaker 4: that has to happen loosely, before COVID, we had two 250 00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:32,400 Speaker 4: percent inflation or even less on a stable basis, and 251 00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:36,800 Speaker 4: that was coming. It wasn't that all inflation was at 252 00:15:36,840 --> 00:15:41,000 Speaker 4: a two percent level. It's that goods were minus one 253 00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:46,720 Speaker 4: percent a year on average, housing was growing about three 254 00:15:47,080 --> 00:15:50,920 Speaker 4: or even three and a half percent per year on average, 255 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:54,640 Speaker 4: and services not counting housing were two and a half 256 00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:58,520 Speaker 4: to three. And that combination is how we were getting 257 00:15:58,560 --> 00:16:01,240 Speaker 4: to one point eight. So we even have a little 258 00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:03,960 Speaker 4: bit of wiggle room. Any one component could be a 259 00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:06,360 Speaker 4: little higher than it was before and we could still 260 00:16:06,400 --> 00:16:10,520 Speaker 4: get to two percent. Definitely. What needed to happen first 261 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:13,360 Speaker 4: was goods prices needed to come down. That's the thing 262 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:18,960 Speaker 4: that went completely bonkers during the COVID times because it 263 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:22,320 Speaker 4: was the first downturn ever where demand for durable goods 264 00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:25,840 Speaker 4: went up and demand for going to the dentist went down, 265 00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:28,600 Speaker 4: and that kind of tells you everything you need to 266 00:16:28,640 --> 00:16:34,920 Speaker 4: know about why this cycle is extremely unusual. Goods prices 267 00:16:34,960 --> 00:16:40,040 Speaker 4: have largely returned to where they were pre COVID. Then 268 00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:44,360 Speaker 4: the second thing that has to happen is housing inflation 269 00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:49,160 Speaker 4: needs to come down, and we believe that it would 270 00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:55,240 Speaker 4: because of this mechanical part that as market rents change, 271 00:16:55,800 --> 00:17:00,520 Speaker 4: that's going to slowly filter through the CPI type measures 272 00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:04,600 Speaker 4: of housing, and you have seen that begin and that 273 00:17:05,080 --> 00:17:11,920 Speaker 4: needs to continue. The issue of non housing services, we've 274 00:17:12,080 --> 00:17:15,919 Speaker 4: always known that's the most persistent part of inflation. It 275 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:18,479 Speaker 4: doesn't need to get down to two percent for us 276 00:17:18,520 --> 00:17:21,840 Speaker 4: to hit the target. It wasn't at two percent before COVID, 277 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:27,159 Speaker 4: and so in the short to medium run, the critical 278 00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:30,000 Speaker 4: component to whether we can stay on the golden path 279 00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:35,160 Speaker 4: is actually about housing because that's the thing that's supposed 280 00:17:35,200 --> 00:17:38,760 Speaker 4: to come down and needs to keep coming down. There 281 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:43,520 Speaker 4: are I do have. Are they concerns? They're probably concerns. 282 00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:47,400 Speaker 4: They're not yet elevated to the level of fears that 283 00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:56,240 Speaker 4: the normal dynamics on residential house prices have had some 284 00:17:56,440 --> 00:18:01,280 Speaker 4: bumps with this aspect that there are a bunch of 285 00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:04,119 Speaker 4: people locked in because rates were so low for a 286 00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:06,520 Speaker 4: long time. There are a bunch of people with three 287 00:18:06,560 --> 00:18:11,040 Speaker 4: percent mortgages who are resisting putting their house on the market. 288 00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:15,560 Speaker 4: So the supply of existing homes is not what you 289 00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:19,880 Speaker 4: might normally think, and that's pushed prices the other way, 290 00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:25,359 Speaker 4: and eventually that could slow the decline of inflation on 291 00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:32,040 Speaker 4: the CPI style measures of residential inflation. This is the 292 00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:35,879 Speaker 4: long wind up to say I think the supply chain 293 00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:41,760 Speaker 4: mostly goes through goods and goods inflation. We've seen the 294 00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:47,320 Speaker 4: progress that we wanted, So the danger on the goods side, 295 00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:51,919 Speaker 4: of course, is now with oil prices going up. We 296 00:18:52,040 --> 00:18:54,879 Speaker 4: know what happens when you get negative supply shocks. We 297 00:18:55,080 --> 00:18:58,040 Speaker 4: just live through that. So that's an area of concern. 298 00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:03,360 Speaker 4: And then the second is about labor supply. So there 299 00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:06,679 Speaker 4: was a big negative shock to the supply of labor. 300 00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:10,959 Speaker 4: I think that explains part of the persistence and the 301 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:18,040 Speaker 4: rise of inflation in other components. But that is also easy. 302 00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:19,919 Speaker 4: If you look at the job market or if you 303 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:23,840 Speaker 4: talk to businesses, it's not fully back to where it 304 00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:28,159 Speaker 4: was before, but there's been dramatic improvement in the ability 305 00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:33,680 Speaker 4: to hire and retain new workers. You've seen labor supply, 306 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:39,440 Speaker 4: labor force participation of women hitting record levels, labor supply 307 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:44,439 Speaker 4: of people of workers with disabilities hitting record levels, both 308 00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:48,560 Speaker 4: suggesting maybe some of the increased flexibility in the workplace 309 00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:52,800 Speaker 4: is going to operate a bit like a positive supply shock, 310 00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:58,439 Speaker 4: so that's kind of promising, and immigration levels returning to 311 00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:03,000 Speaker 4: something like what the were before also a positive impact 312 00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:06,960 Speaker 4: on labor supply. So on the real side, I still 313 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:11,600 Speaker 4: feel like nothing has happened so far that is convincing 314 00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:14,640 Speaker 4: evidence that we're off the golden path. And a lot 315 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:18,040 Speaker 4: of the markers that we've been hitting are the things 316 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:20,040 Speaker 4: that months ago I was saying we would have to 317 00:20:20,119 --> 00:20:23,520 Speaker 4: hit these markers to believe that this thing is still possible, 318 00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:25,480 Speaker 4: and so far we've been hitting those. 319 00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:45,640 Speaker 2: Markers soft landing, golden path, whatever you want to call it. 320 00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:49,440 Speaker 2: It's very clear why that is a desirable target for 321 00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:52,400 Speaker 2: the FED to be aiming at. But I guess one 322 00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:54,600 Speaker 2: of the questions I would have is if we say 323 00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:57,000 Speaker 2: that a lot of the inflation that we have experienced 324 00:20:57,040 --> 00:21:00,639 Speaker 2: is driven by supply shocks, is it reason for the 325 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:04,680 Speaker 2: FED to take credit for a soft landing in that context? 326 00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:08,200 Speaker 2: Or like, what would the central bank think it has done? 327 00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:12,000 Speaker 2: Or what has the impact of higher interest rates actually 328 00:21:12,119 --> 00:21:13,840 Speaker 2: been in this scenario. 329 00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:19,719 Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's important that we think about that in 330 00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:24,040 Speaker 4: a different way. What matters is the is the actual pudding? 331 00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:26,960 Speaker 4: You know what I mean, what does it taste like? 332 00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:32,600 Speaker 4: It's not fighting over the who deserves the credit? Is 333 00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:40,040 Speaker 4: only informative if it's telling you about the effectiveness of policy. 334 00:21:41,119 --> 00:21:45,640 Speaker 4: In a way, I think the FED has played an 335 00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:53,399 Speaker 4: important role in preventing inflation from spiraling upward, and it 336 00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:57,320 Speaker 4: kind of brings us into the area of inflation expectations. 337 00:21:57,520 --> 00:22:01,480 Speaker 2: Yeah, sorry, can I ask one really technical question before 338 00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:04,680 Speaker 2: before we do that, But when you talk about inflation 339 00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:07,439 Speaker 2: expectations as you did in your recent speech, are you 340 00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:11,280 Speaker 2: looking at market based measures or surveys or what is 341 00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:12,480 Speaker 2: your benchmark? Exactly? 342 00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:16,800 Speaker 4: In that speech, I identified both. There's, as you know, there's 343 00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:21,919 Speaker 4: a lot of argument by analysts and by economists about 344 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:27,119 Speaker 4: exactly that question. And my point was, take any measure 345 00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:29,879 Speaker 4: you want, take them all. I put up graphs of 346 00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:33,920 Speaker 4: market based measures, which personally I do like the market 347 00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:39,840 Speaker 4: based measures and survey measures and estimates from the FED 348 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:45,359 Speaker 4: of what those what the market expectations were back in 349 00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:49,119 Speaker 4: the nineteen seventies. And the crucial thing to see that 350 00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:52,840 Speaker 4: really came out of a lot of the academic literature 351 00:22:53,119 --> 00:23:01,320 Speaker 4: on inflation, is that if expectations remain anchored at say 352 00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:05,040 Speaker 4: two percent, you outline an inflation target of two percent. 353 00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:09,119 Speaker 4: If it is credible and people believe that the FED 354 00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:11,920 Speaker 4: will do whatever it takes to get to the target, 355 00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:18,320 Speaker 4: that is a powerful draw bringing actual inflation down if 356 00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:24,840 Speaker 4: it's above two percent. So when they're having negotiations or 357 00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:30,960 Speaker 4: thinking about price increases, what the private market participants believe 358 00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:36,040 Speaker 4: is going to happen overall will heavily influence wage and 359 00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:41,960 Speaker 4: price determinations right now. And if you look at expectations 360 00:23:41,960 --> 00:23:47,639 Speaker 4: in the nineteen seventies, they clearly became massively unhinged. They 361 00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:52,680 Speaker 4: would ratchet up with each experience of rising inflation. The 362 00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:56,440 Speaker 4: measures of expectations would rise and not come back down. 363 00:23:56,680 --> 00:24:01,080 Speaker 4: So you know, if inflation was at two and jumps 364 00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:06,520 Speaker 4: to six, the expectations, long term inflation expectations would rise, 365 00:24:06,600 --> 00:24:09,400 Speaker 4: let's say, to three and a half. And then when 366 00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:12,000 Speaker 4: inflation comes down, it doesn't go back to two, it 367 00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:14,479 Speaker 4: goes back to three and a half. And then when 368 00:24:14,520 --> 00:24:17,160 Speaker 4: you get your next bout of inflation, the long run 369 00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:20,359 Speaker 4: expectations jump up to five and a half. And so 370 00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:25,000 Speaker 4: you get this ratchet effect. And I showed the graph. 371 00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:28,920 Speaker 4: It became totally unhinged in the seventies and the experience 372 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:33,160 Speaker 4: of the seventies with expectations are what made the Voker 373 00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:38,080 Speaker 4: experience so difficult and so painful. Now you probably know 374 00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:42,040 Speaker 4: Paul Voker was a great mentor of mine. I worked 375 00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:46,520 Speaker 4: with him through the financial crisis, and he's personal hero. 376 00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:50,760 Speaker 4: And I would ask him all the time about the 377 00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:53,240 Speaker 4: Voker experience and what was it like in the seventies, 378 00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:56,560 Speaker 4: and was it hard to convince the FOMC to go along? 379 00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:00,760 Speaker 4: And you know, what did you think when and interest 380 00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:06,160 Speaker 4: rates we're twenty percent and things like that, and that experience, 381 00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:12,640 Speaker 4: the scarring experience of trying to fight inflation when expectations 382 00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:18,359 Speaker 4: are unhinged, that should be on everyone's mind. And that 383 00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:22,680 Speaker 4: looks nothing like what happened in twenty one and twenty two. 384 00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:26,960 Speaker 4: If you plot market based measures of expectations or survey 385 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:32,040 Speaker 4: based measures, they go up modestly and they return and 386 00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:38,800 Speaker 4: they are now they remain very well anchored at something 387 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:42,199 Speaker 4: close to the target rate. And that is a sign 388 00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:48,520 Speaker 4: of FED credibility, and that is crucial. It's absolutely crucial 389 00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:54,000 Speaker 4: that the FED maintain that credibility because if they don't 390 00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:59,439 Speaker 4: and the thing becomes unanchored, it becomes dramatically harder to 391 00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:04,040 Speaker 4: achieve a Golden Path like outcome. If you just go look, 392 00:26:04,119 --> 00:26:07,080 Speaker 4: and partly I went through some of the theory, We've 393 00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:10,800 Speaker 4: got two economists at the Chicago FED who kind of 394 00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:18,320 Speaker 4: redid the traditional model but incorporated market based expectations of 395 00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:22,280 Speaker 4: several of the variables. In the normal analysis, there is 396 00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:28,399 Speaker 4: no role for future expectations of the unemployment rate, of 397 00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:32,679 Speaker 4: the inflation rate, at GDP growth. There is only the 398 00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:37,240 Speaker 4: backward looking monetary policy happened, how long does it take 399 00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:40,400 Speaker 4: to have an impact? So what they did is go 400 00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:43,919 Speaker 4: take some of these expectations measures and put them in 401 00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:47,640 Speaker 4: a normal analysis, and what they find is that these 402 00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:51,959 Speaker 4: measures of future expectations do matter. And if you do 403 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:56,119 Speaker 4: a model like that, it says that the impact of 404 00:26:56,160 --> 00:27:02,160 Speaker 4: monetary policy occurs much more quickly then in the historical 405 00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:09,360 Speaker 4: In a way, it's saying something like, the market expected 406 00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:15,280 Speaker 4: conditions financial conditions to tighten well before the FED actually 407 00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:19,800 Speaker 4: started raising rates, and so the clock kind of begins 408 00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:24,720 Speaker 4: when the market believes it, not when they actually do it. 409 00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:30,920 Speaker 4: If you think that, then in a way, just go 410 00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:34,520 Speaker 4: look at the market expectations. Now, the market expects that 411 00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:38,160 Speaker 4: the FED is only going to raise rates a little 412 00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:41,879 Speaker 4: bit more, that it's going to keep them a little 413 00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:46,040 Speaker 4: bit higher for some time, but that that's going to 414 00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:49,439 Speaker 4: work the market expectations of inflation, or that it's going 415 00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:53,520 Speaker 4: to in relatively in the relatively near future get back 416 00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:57,160 Speaker 4: to target and do so without a recession. And it's 417 00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:00,240 Speaker 4: that that it's in the data is the thing that's 418 00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:02,919 Speaker 4: driving this, this model and every other model. So we 419 00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:06,080 Speaker 4: can argue about the details of anyone model, but the 420 00:28:06,119 --> 00:28:09,639 Speaker 4: fundamental fact that the market expectations are that we're going 421 00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:13,440 Speaker 4: to pull it off makes it easier to pull it off. 422 00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:16,199 Speaker 4: Because of that expectations, channel got it. 423 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:19,840 Speaker 1: So you talked about, you know, the golden path, you 424 00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:22,679 Speaker 1: talked about some of you know, how you would decompose 425 00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:26,399 Speaker 1: getting back to a stable low inflation, a sort of 426 00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:30,520 Speaker 1: maintain modest goods inflation, maybe a little heat on the 427 00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:36,040 Speaker 1: shelter side, modest services inflation. Maybe some wiggle room within 428 00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:41,760 Speaker 1: those three categories, immigrations, picking up supply chain's healing. Maybe 429 00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:44,960 Speaker 1: we can get there. The one thing that seems unambiguously 430 00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:50,280 Speaker 1: different between right now and twenty nineteen is rates, And 431 00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:53,200 Speaker 1: so I guess I'll start with a sort of first question. 432 00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:55,440 Speaker 1: When you look at the yield curve right now and 433 00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:57,880 Speaker 1: you see rates shooting up higher and higher, I guess 434 00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:01,280 Speaker 1: we're still in inversion, but flat all that coming out 435 00:29:01,320 --> 00:29:04,800 Speaker 1: of inversion. Can you square that story with a golden 436 00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:07,960 Speaker 1: path story? Is that a market that is consistent with 437 00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:11,080 Speaker 1: a golden path? Or do you see tension between what 438 00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:13,959 Speaker 1: a golden path looks like to you and what market 439 00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:17,120 Speaker 1: participants are pricing it in terms of the trajectory of 440 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:18,160 Speaker 1: rates going out. 441 00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:22,800 Speaker 4: I kind of think two things. One, I'm struck by 442 00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:28,920 Speaker 4: your comparison. People are comparing the labor market and the 443 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,840 Speaker 4: ratio of unemployment of vacancies and things like that to 444 00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:36,719 Speaker 4: pre COVID, and we're comparing inflation levels to pre COVID. 445 00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:41,360 Speaker 4: It's an interesting racle Joe to say, but the rates 446 00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:44,520 Speaker 4: were a lot lower than if anything, I would have 447 00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:49,360 Speaker 4: thought that would make you more optimistic that inflation would 448 00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:52,840 Speaker 4: come down, because on top of if we could get 449 00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:55,640 Speaker 4: some of the conditions to look like what they were before, 450 00:29:56,240 --> 00:30:00,640 Speaker 4: that those higher rates, higher real rates, would would exert 451 00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:08,440 Speaker 4: a little restraint on things. I guess one answer to 452 00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:12,400 Speaker 4: the question would be me personally, what do I think? 453 00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:15,240 Speaker 4: And one answer the question is what does the market think? 454 00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:18,200 Speaker 4: And I guess the answer to both of those is 455 00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:24,400 Speaker 4: both the market and I think that it's still possible. 456 00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:32,080 Speaker 4: So the market has decided that the SEP higher for 457 00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:37,240 Speaker 4: longer is accurate. And it's yet another in the series 458 00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:40,800 Speaker 4: of the market realizing the FED is serious and there 459 00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:43,640 Speaker 4: we're not bs ing, you know when we when we 460 00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:47,400 Speaker 4: say what we're going to do, but that that hasn't 461 00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:52,400 Speaker 4: led them to predict a recession. The you know, the 462 00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:57,000 Speaker 4: forecast of GDP are for not a recession. So I 463 00:30:57,160 --> 00:31:00,480 Speaker 4: still feel like this is our goal and it's still possible. 464 00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:08,160 Speaker 4: My concerns are less that we're misinterpreting the whether the 465 00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:15,480 Speaker 4: economy is overheating or undershooting, overcooling, whatever's the opposite of overheating. 466 00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:22,200 Speaker 4: My concerns are more past soft landings that were easier 467 00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:26,560 Speaker 4: than the Golden Path version have been derailed, like nineteen 468 00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:31,280 Speaker 4: ninety two thousand and one. They were derailed by external shocks, 469 00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:34,520 Speaker 4: and we got a lot of external shocks that we're 470 00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:36,959 Speaker 4: going to have to monitor. We got the price of 471 00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:42,400 Speaker 4: fuel rising pretty significantly. You've got potential slow down in 472 00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:45,960 Speaker 4: China that could do damage to the rest of the 473 00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:51,640 Speaker 4: world's growth rate. We didn't have a government shutdown, we 474 00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:55,719 Speaker 4: got auto strikes, we got the prospects of government shutdown 475 00:31:56,400 --> 00:32:01,240 Speaker 4: maybe in November, and things like that. If you look 476 00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:05,080 Speaker 4: at past history, they have had negative impacts if they 477 00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:09,440 Speaker 4: last long enough. So that's kind of where my head 478 00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:12,120 Speaker 4: is about whether we could pull it off or not. 479 00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:15,120 Speaker 1: Just maybe if I can reframe the question, what is 480 00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:20,040 Speaker 1: it that's changed in this environment pre pandemic versus now 481 00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:26,080 Speaker 1: such that this sort of benign environment is such higher 482 00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:29,840 Speaker 1: rates are necessary. I mean, again, you know we did 483 00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:32,479 Speaker 1: not need higher rates. We did not need rates at all. 484 00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:36,160 Speaker 1: We basically observe prior to COVID. We certainly did not 485 00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:39,560 Speaker 1: need eight percent mortgage rates to have this sort of, 486 00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:44,400 Speaker 1: you know, a cool inflationary environment. What's changed in your 487 00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:45,680 Speaker 1: view in that time. 488 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:50,560 Speaker 4: Let's say two. It all depends compared to what and 489 00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:55,440 Speaker 4: so we'll answer the question compared to six months ago 490 00:32:55,840 --> 00:32:57,880 Speaker 4: as we think about the why are the long rates 491 00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:01,720 Speaker 4: going up? But then you're saying, well, let's compare to 492 00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:05,360 Speaker 4: five years ago. The thing is, when we're at the 493 00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:09,920 Speaker 4: zero lower bound, that's not normal. That's you don't the 494 00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:13,000 Speaker 4: central Bank doesn't want to be sitting there bumping around 495 00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:19,520 Speaker 4: at zero interest rates because it restricts the flexibility of 496 00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:23,080 Speaker 4: the central bank, and it restricts the central bank's ability 497 00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:28,920 Speaker 4: to respond to external shocks. Of course, so if you 498 00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:32,480 Speaker 4: take a step back in history, the thing that's oddest 499 00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:36,040 Speaker 4: is why were we at zero for so long? It's 500 00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:40,880 Speaker 4: not why do we have positive interest rates now? If 501 00:33:40,960 --> 00:33:46,480 Speaker 4: you compare to six months ago. Six months ago we 502 00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:50,240 Speaker 4: were trying to figure out is the collapse of Silicon 503 00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:55,120 Speaker 4: Valley Bank, First Republic? Are these indicators that we're about 504 00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:58,480 Speaker 4: to have a financial crisis or some kind of a 505 00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:01,960 Speaker 4: credit crunch a la the savings and loan crisis or 506 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:05,120 Speaker 4: those kind of things, and there was a much more 507 00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:09,040 Speaker 4: pessimistic view about whether we're going to have a recession 508 00:34:09,080 --> 00:34:14,239 Speaker 4: and is there going to be a significant slowdown. I 509 00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:18,959 Speaker 4: do think compared to that, if you think there's less 510 00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:23,680 Speaker 4: chance of recession and a deep recession would be a 511 00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:27,799 Speaker 4: low rate environment. We've seen that over and over. So 512 00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:32,680 Speaker 4: if you take away the prospects of a financial collapse 513 00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:35,319 Speaker 4: and a back to zero for a long time kind 514 00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:37,719 Speaker 4: of environment, the long rates are going to go up. 515 00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:41,960 Speaker 4: So in that sense, that part is not a puzzle. 516 00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:44,919 Speaker 4: I think the puzzle that people are trying to put 517 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:47,600 Speaker 4: together is, well, why did it happen in the last 518 00:34:47,640 --> 00:34:50,840 Speaker 4: three weeks and what was it that got announced? Like 519 00:34:50,840 --> 00:34:53,960 Speaker 4: the SEP came out and it was a little different 520 00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:57,839 Speaker 4: than the market expectation, It was a little different than 521 00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:02,400 Speaker 4: the previous SEP. But was it so different that it 522 00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:06,000 Speaker 4: would lead to a material change in a three week period. 523 00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:09,480 Speaker 4: That part's still a puzzle. But if you take a 524 00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:13,600 Speaker 4: six month perspective, in a way, I don't think it's 525 00:35:13,640 --> 00:35:16,239 Speaker 4: that much of a puzzle. It's clear that the long 526 00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:21,960 Speaker 4: rates coming up is what you'd expect, and getting back 527 00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:26,600 Speaker 4: to what I consider a more normal environment where we're 528 00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:30,520 Speaker 4: not hitting the zero lower bound, we don't have seriously 529 00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:33,920 Speaker 4: negative real interest rates for an extended period of time. 530 00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:38,040 Speaker 4: We can argue about what that level is, but it's 531 00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:40,400 Speaker 4: not a surprise that we would be going back to 532 00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:41,200 Speaker 4: something like that. 533 00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:44,080 Speaker 2: Well, just on this note, I take the point that 534 00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:47,560 Speaker 2: the bond market could be reacting to the idea that 535 00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:50,200 Speaker 2: a recession or at least rate cuts are off the table. 536 00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:53,240 Speaker 2: The bond market could also just be wrong, of course, 537 00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:56,560 Speaker 2: But let me ask this question is in a slightly 538 00:35:56,560 --> 00:35:59,560 Speaker 2: different way, which is is there a point at which 539 00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:03,320 Speaker 2: you start to worry about the run up in real 540 00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:06,160 Speaker 2: rates or the sell off in the long end of 541 00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:10,440 Speaker 2: the curve? And you mentioned SVB just then. I mean, 542 00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:13,080 Speaker 2: we know that banks are sitting on huge amounts of 543 00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:15,879 Speaker 2: duration at the moment. It does feel like the sort 544 00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:20,799 Speaker 2: of financial markets channel is a potential path where we 545 00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:23,759 Speaker 2: could maybe get a little bit of trouble. Maybe the 546 00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:27,200 Speaker 2: bond market sell off causes financial conditions to tighten too much. 547 00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:30,440 Speaker 2: Is that something that you're worried about and around you 548 00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:32,600 Speaker 2: know what level would that be a concern for you. 549 00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:37,880 Speaker 4: My only hesitation is on the word worry. That's not 550 00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:42,640 Speaker 4: the right. We absolutely monitor that and are thinking about that, 551 00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:46,160 Speaker 4: and that could be a blow to the to the 552 00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:52,120 Speaker 4: either the financial or the real economy that various manifestations 553 00:36:52,120 --> 00:36:56,759 Speaker 4: of that. That would be the credit crunch hypothesis that 554 00:36:56,840 --> 00:37:00,520 Speaker 4: we were quite nervous about, especially in the wake of 555 00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:04,160 Speaker 4: the of the bank collapses, because in past bank collapses 556 00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:08,600 Speaker 4: you've seen that spiral into credit crunch. But as I 557 00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:12,200 Speaker 4: always say, the you know, it's a very Midwestern thing 558 00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:15,759 Speaker 4: that we're gonna deal with the problems. It doesn't matter 559 00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:17,879 Speaker 4: what the conditions are, you go get the job done. 560 00:37:18,040 --> 00:37:20,760 Speaker 4: You know, out in Chicago there is no bad weather. 561 00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:23,960 Speaker 4: There is only bad clothing. And we're gonna put on 562 00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:26,360 Speaker 4: a parka if we need to put on a parka. 563 00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:31,480 Speaker 4: So if there is a credit crunch, if those things 564 00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:38,080 Speaker 4: materially deteriorate in a way that we haven't seen but 565 00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:43,080 Speaker 4: feared seeing over the last six months, we will adjust. 566 00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:46,320 Speaker 4: And we've got to think about it. We by law, 567 00:37:46,520 --> 00:37:49,560 Speaker 4: we have a dual mandate. As you know, we're gonna 568 00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:54,960 Speaker 4: stabilize prices and maximize employment, and all eyes are on 569 00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:57,920 Speaker 4: getting inflation down. We must get inflation down. That's the 570 00:37:57,960 --> 00:38:00,960 Speaker 4: part of our mandate that we have not been hitting. 571 00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:06,040 Speaker 4: We've been making quite substantial progress on getting the inflation 572 00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:10,279 Speaker 4: rate back down to where we want it. And for 573 00:38:10,400 --> 00:38:14,120 Speaker 4: all of the for all of the attention and heat 574 00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:18,840 Speaker 4: about whether inflation would stall out at three and a half, 575 00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:22,399 Speaker 4: at three, I would just point out, if you take 576 00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:27,200 Speaker 4: the three months performance of inflation, we already blew through 577 00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:32,600 Speaker 4: three percent. We're already getting it down more. And if 578 00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:35,440 Speaker 4: we start to see weakness on the other side of 579 00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:40,080 Speaker 4: the mandate coming from financial conditions getting tighter and that 580 00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:44,840 Speaker 4: leading to more traditional business cycle dynamics where the interest 581 00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:48,560 Speaker 4: rates sensitive sectors like durable goods and autos and stuff 582 00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:53,719 Speaker 4: like that slows, we will adjust to it. You know. 583 00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:57,880 Speaker 4: That's the that's the why the so far chat GPT 584 00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:01,960 Speaker 4: is not going to replace the FOMC. The FOMC is 585 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:04,279 Speaker 4: a collection of a lot of different people, have a 586 00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:06,200 Speaker 4: lot of different views on the economy, and that's the 587 00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:07,319 Speaker 4: best thing we got going. 588 00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:11,480 Speaker 2: Can you adjust even if inflation is still above target? 589 00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:13,439 Speaker 2: I mean, again, I take the point that it has 590 00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:17,319 Speaker 2: been coming down, But the concern, the major concern is 591 00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:19,759 Speaker 2: that if we start to see it go up again, 592 00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:23,040 Speaker 2: for instance, because of gas prices, which you've already mentioned, 593 00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:27,520 Speaker 2: then maybe it becomes trickier for the Fed to navigate 594 00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:32,400 Speaker 2: some sort of financial markets crisis while maintaining that momentum 595 00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:33,320 Speaker 2: on the price side. 596 00:39:33,880 --> 00:39:41,840 Speaker 4: Tricky is a perfectly accurate word. That's why the FMC exists. 597 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:44,640 Speaker 4: Is to try to think through the waggles. The worst 598 00:39:44,719 --> 00:39:49,920 Speaker 4: thing you could do is pre announced. Hey, my policy 599 00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,160 Speaker 4: is just take whatever last month's inflation rate was and 600 00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:57,560 Speaker 4: whatever last month's unemployment rate was, and just react this 601 00:39:57,680 --> 00:40:03,319 Speaker 4: month at the FOMC table based on one month's data. 602 00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:08,480 Speaker 4: That's the wrong way to do it. I outlined Traditionally, 603 00:40:09,320 --> 00:40:14,319 Speaker 4: the impact of monetary policy has a substantial lag, and 604 00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:20,400 Speaker 4: inflation comes down after a big increases in rates, but 605 00:40:20,640 --> 00:40:26,279 Speaker 4: the inflation comes down only after the recession begins. So 606 00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:30,680 Speaker 4: what we have already experienced over the last six months 607 00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:35,719 Speaker 4: is extremely unusual by historical standards, because the inflation came 608 00:40:35,760 --> 00:40:42,680 Speaker 4: down before or slash without slow down. On the economic side, 609 00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:47,600 Speaker 4: any central banks got to think through are these supply 610 00:40:47,719 --> 00:40:51,680 Speaker 4: shocks or demand shocks? They've got to think through the dynamics, 611 00:40:53,040 --> 00:40:56,120 Speaker 4: by which I mean, what have we already done and 612 00:40:56,239 --> 00:40:58,960 Speaker 4: how much is of that is still to come? How 613 00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:02,319 Speaker 4: much of that impact is is still to come, and 614 00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:05,560 Speaker 4: we don't want to overshoot, and that's a balancing act, 615 00:41:06,239 --> 00:41:08,959 Speaker 4: and we got to strike that balancing act. And that's 616 00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:13,760 Speaker 4: kind of the root of the discussion. But I definitely 617 00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:18,520 Speaker 4: don't want to tie my hands or anybody's hands on 618 00:41:18,719 --> 00:41:24,600 Speaker 4: the FOMC about hypotheticals of like, well, would you vote 619 00:41:24,640 --> 00:41:27,680 Speaker 4: for twenty five basis points up or down or this 620 00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:31,040 Speaker 4: if the inflation rate came in at exactly this and 621 00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:36,560 Speaker 4: it was matched to the unemployment rate? Of why, Because 622 00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:39,120 Speaker 4: there's a lot of art as well as a lot 623 00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:42,680 Speaker 4: of science to monetary policy, and you just got to 624 00:41:42,719 --> 00:41:46,239 Speaker 4: monitor the conditions. That's why I always say I'm in 625 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:49,239 Speaker 4: the coalition of the data dogs. You know, our thing 626 00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:52,640 Speaker 4: is go sniff, and if you don't know what's happening, 627 00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:55,719 Speaker 4: go sniff some more. That's the that's the root of 628 00:41:55,760 --> 00:41:58,000 Speaker 4: the school of thought where I come from. 629 00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:02,200 Speaker 1: Well, I get your reluctance for patheticals and obviously not 630 00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:06,960 Speaker 1: wanting to tie your hand. Well, it's just sort of 631 00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:12,000 Speaker 1: like a vague hypothetical because you know, let's call. 632 00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:13,320 Speaker 2: It scenario planning. 633 00:42:13,800 --> 00:42:14,880 Speaker 4: Yeah, scenario planning. 634 00:42:15,360 --> 00:42:19,840 Speaker 1: Yeah, Tracy nails it. Scenario planning. But it's basically, you know, 635 00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:23,000 Speaker 1: right now the job is to get inflation down. As 636 00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:25,640 Speaker 1: you said, the actual last few months, you're blowing through 637 00:42:25,640 --> 00:42:27,520 Speaker 1: some of the expectations on the downside. 638 00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:28,160 Speaker 4: Good. 639 00:42:28,600 --> 00:42:31,080 Speaker 1: You know, obviously you have a dual mandate, and one 640 00:42:31,160 --> 00:42:33,600 Speaker 1: side of the mandate is labor, which has been very 641 00:42:33,600 --> 00:42:37,480 Speaker 1: strong by most metrics, including today's jobs report, including on 642 00:42:37,600 --> 00:42:40,759 Speaker 1: employment rate below four percent. But talk to us just 643 00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:45,839 Speaker 1: generally about where the shift would come from. What would 644 00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:52,239 Speaker 1: you need to see such shift of what thinking about cuts? Yeah, 645 00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:54,880 Speaker 1: whether it's on the employment side or just on the 646 00:42:54,920 --> 00:42:57,160 Speaker 1: inflation side, what would be the type of thing to 647 00:42:57,520 --> 00:42:59,759 Speaker 1: sort of get the other side of the mandate, the 648 00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:03,840 Speaker 1: maintaining low employment via cutting. What would you need to 649 00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:04,959 Speaker 1: see to get into that frame? 650 00:43:07,120 --> 00:43:10,919 Speaker 4: Look, the I'm already not don't want to get into 651 00:43:11,600 --> 00:43:18,839 Speaker 4: hypothetical discussions, much less phil hypothetical discussions about philosophy in 652 00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:23,840 Speaker 4: the future. So I kind of can't. I don't have us, okay, 653 00:43:24,480 --> 00:43:28,640 Speaker 4: definitive answer to what would the conditions look like? We 654 00:43:28,680 --> 00:43:33,880 Speaker 4: would not just be past the raising period and past 655 00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:36,000 Speaker 4: the to be fair period, to. 656 00:43:35,960 --> 00:43:38,360 Speaker 1: Be fair to my question, to be fair to my question, 657 00:43:38,520 --> 00:43:41,240 Speaker 1: I get cut well, to be fair to my question 658 00:43:41,560 --> 00:43:44,120 Speaker 1: is why it's not completely out there. I mean, up 659 00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:48,000 Speaker 1: until very recently, the market was pricing in cuts. Actually 660 00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:50,600 Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three, I think those are gone. So 661 00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:52,479 Speaker 1: it was like the market was trying to figure out 662 00:43:52,680 --> 00:43:55,000 Speaker 1: when's the Fed gonna cut? When's the Fed gonna cut? 663 00:43:55,200 --> 00:43:57,000 Speaker 1: You know, it's the down showed Maybe we're not going 664 00:43:57,080 --> 00:43:59,560 Speaker 1: to get any cuts anytime soon. But this is like 665 00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:02,439 Speaker 1: a sort of central question the market trying to figure 666 00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:05,440 Speaker 1: out would it take a recession to get rate coaches 667 00:44:05,560 --> 00:44:06,160 Speaker 1: or could we just. 668 00:44:06,120 --> 00:44:14,440 Speaker 4: Get philosophical basis, the Fed is trying to maximize employment 669 00:44:14,480 --> 00:44:19,120 Speaker 4: and stabilize prices. If we're stabilized prices in a way 670 00:44:19,520 --> 00:44:23,080 Speaker 4: that we felt like we're on the target, then the 671 00:44:23,160 --> 00:44:27,560 Speaker 4: Fed doesn't need to be tightening. And it's it's worth 672 00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:32,680 Speaker 4: remembering holding rates at a level while the inflation rate 673 00:44:32,800 --> 00:44:36,520 Speaker 4: comes down is a form of tightening. The real rate 674 00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:40,520 Speaker 4: is getting tighter as that happens, and the if your 675 00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:43,880 Speaker 4: target is something about real rates and a level of 676 00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:50,640 Speaker 4: restrictiveness that matches your your mandate, The abstract answer to 677 00:44:50,680 --> 00:44:53,440 Speaker 4: your question of when is it time to cut rates 678 00:44:54,200 --> 00:44:59,640 Speaker 4: is when the dual mandate conditions suggest that cutting rates 679 00:45:00,160 --> 00:45:04,480 Speaker 4: is necessary to maintain your to maintain your mandate. So 680 00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:10,720 Speaker 4: if you observe big increases in unemployment, big drops in GDP, 681 00:45:11,200 --> 00:45:15,600 Speaker 4: what looks like a recession in past business cycles, those 682 00:45:15,719 --> 00:45:20,120 Speaker 4: can come on quite suddenly. You know, they can come 683 00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:24,279 Speaker 4: on rapidly, they say of the unemployment rate. Usually it 684 00:45:24,400 --> 00:45:26,640 Speaker 4: rises like a rocket, it goes down like a feather. 685 00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:31,440 Speaker 4: So if you start to see rocketing higher unemployment rates 686 00:45:32,280 --> 00:45:38,880 Speaker 4: while the inflation target remains tame, then that's a sign 687 00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:41,080 Speaker 4: that the dual mandate, the other part of the dual 688 00:45:41,120 --> 00:45:42,240 Speaker 4: mandate you got to think about. 689 00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:02,399 Speaker 2: So we've been talking a lot about soft landing, golden path, 690 00:46:02,480 --> 00:46:04,799 Speaker 2: and again, as you pointed out in your speech, that 691 00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:06,680 Speaker 2: is a tantalizing prospect. 692 00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:10,480 Speaker 4: I like how you keep I don't know if it's 693 00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:13,800 Speaker 4: a if it's a gift to me or to Joe, 694 00:46:14,040 --> 00:46:17,440 Speaker 4: But you want to say soft landing, but then you 695 00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:21,320 Speaker 4: add slash golden paths. I'm just going to difference the 696 00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:25,520 Speaker 4: path and the soft landing is that the golden path 697 00:46:25,719 --> 00:46:28,520 Speaker 4: is the biggest of all the soft landings. That's when 698 00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:30,719 Speaker 4: the softest of the soft land. 699 00:46:30,480 --> 00:46:33,240 Speaker 1: That's when they chisel all of your all the faces 700 00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:35,839 Speaker 1: on Mount rush. That's right, when you hit the golden path. 701 00:46:36,320 --> 00:46:38,600 Speaker 4: That's right, the golden path. I get that. 702 00:46:38,640 --> 00:46:42,160 Speaker 2: It's a great thing to aim for and a tantalizing 703 00:46:42,200 --> 00:46:45,920 Speaker 2: prospect for policymakers. Do you worry at all about the 704 00:46:45,960 --> 00:46:48,280 Speaker 2: no landing scenario anymore? 705 00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:48,480 Speaker 4: Like? 706 00:46:48,560 --> 00:46:51,120 Speaker 2: Is that still a tail risk? The idea that well, 707 00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:56,759 Speaker 2: maybe landing meaning inflation, inflation stays above target, but unemployment 708 00:46:57,000 --> 00:47:00,319 Speaker 2: is still relatively low, rates remain pretty high. 709 00:47:01,640 --> 00:47:03,560 Speaker 4: I would tell you that, I mean, maybe this is 710 00:47:03,600 --> 00:47:06,960 Speaker 4: too blunt. I don't worry about the no landing scenario 711 00:47:07,320 --> 00:47:10,520 Speaker 4: because the FED will never allow it. The prospect that 712 00:47:11,080 --> 00:47:15,200 Speaker 4: will just surrender and give up without getting inflation down 713 00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:19,000 Speaker 4: to the target, that will not happen. The I can't. 714 00:47:19,120 --> 00:47:21,880 Speaker 4: I'm not allowed to speak for anybody else on the FMC, 715 00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:26,239 Speaker 4: but for me, I will, over my dead body, will 716 00:47:26,280 --> 00:47:29,680 Speaker 4: that happened. And I feel like my mentor Paul Volger 717 00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:33,920 Speaker 4: is whispering. My ghost will come back to haunt you 718 00:47:34,000 --> 00:47:37,960 Speaker 4: forever if you don't. If you do not get us 719 00:47:38,040 --> 00:47:41,280 Speaker 4: back to inflation, we will get inflation back to the target. 720 00:47:41,520 --> 00:47:46,360 Speaker 4: So I don't view the no landing scenario as that 721 00:47:46,560 --> 00:47:48,719 Speaker 4: that's not a foremost risk in my mind. 722 00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:49,920 Speaker 2: All right, you're serious about it. 723 00:47:49,960 --> 00:47:53,680 Speaker 1: I got it. You look, you're congressionally healthy. 724 00:47:54,760 --> 00:48:00,680 Speaker 4: No, all I would tell people is this upset of 725 00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:06,160 Speaker 4: folks who want to constantly express doubt. Ah, the FED 726 00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:09,399 Speaker 4: will never do it. The FED won't achieve that FED 727 00:48:09,440 --> 00:48:11,680 Speaker 4: doesn't have the guts to kids raise the raids. They 728 00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:14,360 Speaker 4: don't have the guts to keep the raids there. Remember 729 00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:19,080 Speaker 4: the lesson of Silicon Valley Bank, which I couldn't for 730 00:48:19,120 --> 00:48:22,040 Speaker 4: the life of me understand. The Silicon Valley Bank knew 731 00:48:22,040 --> 00:48:25,160 Speaker 4: they don't have a traditional deposit franchise, and they knew 732 00:48:25,200 --> 00:48:27,600 Speaker 4: they hold a bunch of bonds and that the rates 733 00:48:27,600 --> 00:48:29,640 Speaker 4: are going up. So I could not, for the life 734 00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:32,719 Speaker 4: of me understand why did they just hedge? Why if 735 00:48:32,760 --> 00:48:35,680 Speaker 4: you know you have these vulnerabilities, just hedge it? And 736 00:48:35,760 --> 00:48:39,359 Speaker 4: the answer if you go through the bar report, they 737 00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:43,440 Speaker 4: did hedge. But then they thought that the FED wouldn't 738 00:48:43,480 --> 00:48:46,880 Speaker 4: stick it out, and that they would make more money 739 00:48:47,120 --> 00:48:49,640 Speaker 4: if they got rid of the hedges, and so they 740 00:48:49,640 --> 00:48:53,200 Speaker 4: got rid of them. And that's yet another in the 741 00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:56,719 Speaker 4: long line of lessons. Don't bet against the FED. That's 742 00:48:56,760 --> 00:48:57,279 Speaker 4: not a good night. 743 00:48:57,440 --> 00:49:01,560 Speaker 1: So basically they made the ultimate price of fighting the FED, 744 00:49:01,760 --> 00:49:02,719 Speaker 1: and no. 745 00:49:02,440 --> 00:49:05,560 Speaker 4: No, they made a bet. They took a bet against 746 00:49:05,560 --> 00:49:09,520 Speaker 4: the FED being being committed to its target or doing 747 00:49:09,520 --> 00:49:11,040 Speaker 4: what it was said it was going to do. And 748 00:49:11,080 --> 00:49:13,160 Speaker 4: that was not a good that was not smart. So 749 00:49:14,520 --> 00:49:17,120 Speaker 4: I feel that way here too. The FED is not 750 00:49:17,160 --> 00:49:19,759 Speaker 4: going to give up all the inflation rates three and 751 00:49:19,800 --> 00:49:22,640 Speaker 4: a half percent. It's too hard to get it down anymore. 752 00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:25,080 Speaker 4: That's totally wrong. That is not the FED is not 753 00:49:25,120 --> 00:49:25,719 Speaker 4: going to do that. 754 00:49:25,760 --> 00:49:29,400 Speaker 2: I'm kind of getting whatever it takes, vibes, whatever it takes. Y. 755 00:49:29,520 --> 00:49:32,440 Speaker 4: Yes, well, we've said I don't know what you're getting 756 00:49:32,480 --> 00:49:34,760 Speaker 4: that vibe. I don't know how to say it anymore. 757 00:49:34,840 --> 00:49:37,279 Speaker 4: That we will do whatever it takes to get the 758 00:49:37,320 --> 00:49:39,759 Speaker 4: band aid down. That's the law. The law tells us 759 00:49:39,760 --> 00:49:41,600 Speaker 4: we have to do that. You know. 760 00:49:41,719 --> 00:49:45,520 Speaker 1: One of the maxims in markets is that narrative follows price. 761 00:49:45,680 --> 00:49:47,879 Speaker 1: And one of the things that is coming on big 762 00:49:47,920 --> 00:49:49,240 Speaker 1: time with this rise. 763 00:49:49,160 --> 00:49:51,920 Speaker 4: Is that a maxim narrative follows price. I like that. 764 00:49:52,200 --> 00:49:54,719 Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, something happens and then people tell a 765 00:49:54,760 --> 00:49:58,200 Speaker 1: story about whye. But with the rising rates, there has 766 00:49:58,239 --> 00:50:01,880 Speaker 1: been a crescendo of a weirdess, a big pic about 767 00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:06,280 Speaker 1: the deficit and expansionary fiscal policy and how the deficit 768 00:50:06,360 --> 00:50:08,279 Speaker 1: is a percentage of GDP or however you want to 769 00:50:08,320 --> 00:50:11,440 Speaker 1: measure it is much higher than it normally is with 770 00:50:11,640 --> 00:50:16,239 Speaker 1: unemployment below four percent and structurally high deficits for a 771 00:50:16,280 --> 00:50:19,040 Speaker 1: long time to come. And I know you don't you know, 772 00:50:19,080 --> 00:50:22,040 Speaker 1: I understand the whole not commenting on fiscal policy in 773 00:50:22,120 --> 00:50:24,920 Speaker 1: terms of giving just about to say that, I know, 774 00:50:24,960 --> 00:50:27,800 Speaker 1: I know, we all know that. We all know that part. 775 00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:31,680 Speaker 1: But from a sort from a FED standpoint, it is 776 00:50:31,719 --> 00:50:33,880 Speaker 1: your job to you know, as you say, do the 777 00:50:34,360 --> 00:50:37,280 Speaker 1: Congress gives you that job? Does it make it harder? 778 00:50:37,560 --> 00:50:39,080 Speaker 1: And on a sustained basis? 779 00:50:39,280 --> 00:50:39,480 Speaker 3: Is it? 780 00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:42,239 Speaker 1: I is it a force for keeping rates as high 781 00:50:42,320 --> 00:50:45,840 Speaker 1: as they are From the Fed's perspective, that fiscal policy 782 00:50:45,880 --> 00:50:50,319 Speaker 1: appears to be so loose without any change to that insight. 783 00:50:51,680 --> 00:50:55,000 Speaker 4: Is starting from your observation. I'm a FED man, now, 784 00:50:55,239 --> 00:50:58,400 Speaker 4: I don't. My job is not to go argue about 785 00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:02,520 Speaker 4: what the fiscal polity he should be or is. Like 786 00:51:02,600 --> 00:51:07,680 Speaker 4: I said before, FED mandate is you take the conditions, 787 00:51:07,719 --> 00:51:11,640 Speaker 4: whatever the conditions are, and figure out how to maximize 788 00:51:11,640 --> 00:51:15,880 Speaker 4: employment and stabilize prices. And that's what we're gonna do. 789 00:51:16,040 --> 00:51:20,800 Speaker 4: I mean that there's a whole argument among the fiscal 790 00:51:20,960 --> 00:51:27,480 Speaker 4: policy minded economists about things like measurement and is what's 791 00:51:27,520 --> 00:51:30,120 Speaker 4: the proper measure of debt and what's the proper measure 792 00:51:30,200 --> 00:51:35,680 Speaker 4: of fiscal policy? And from a GDP kind of impulse perspective, 793 00:51:36,560 --> 00:51:40,480 Speaker 4: isn't it all about delta from last year? So if 794 00:51:40,520 --> 00:51:43,080 Speaker 4: the deficit is big, but it's smaller than it was 795 00:51:43,239 --> 00:51:46,160 Speaker 4: last year, is that does that mean the fiscal impulse 796 00:51:46,239 --> 00:51:52,319 Speaker 4: is going down? I don't, I studiously don't have an 797 00:51:52,400 --> 00:51:56,759 Speaker 4: opinion about fiscal policy. I just tell you we're going 798 00:51:56,840 --> 00:52:02,040 Speaker 4: to watch the conditions and on the ground. If whatever external, internal, 799 00:52:02,200 --> 00:52:07,359 Speaker 4: or other shocks lead inflation to go up or unemployment 800 00:52:07,400 --> 00:52:10,560 Speaker 4: to go up, then that's the kind of stuff that 801 00:52:10,960 --> 00:52:13,959 Speaker 4: we're going to be factoring into our decisions for sure. 802 00:52:14,920 --> 00:52:18,600 Speaker 1: Austin Golesby, such a thrill to finally have you on 803 00:52:18,640 --> 00:52:21,120 Speaker 1: the show. Really appreciate you coming on on lots. 804 00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:23,600 Speaker 4: Absolutely my pleasure. Keep up the good work. 805 00:52:23,800 --> 00:52:26,040 Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Austin. I have that I have the 806 00:52:26,080 --> 00:52:29,160 Speaker 2: clip of what is it Tim Allen from Galaxy Quest 807 00:52:29,200 --> 00:52:31,520 Speaker 2: going never give up, never surrender in my head. 808 00:52:32,480 --> 00:52:33,040 Speaker 4: That's right. 809 00:52:33,160 --> 00:52:37,480 Speaker 1: Thank you for indulging about credibility, all of our hypotheticals, 810 00:52:37,560 --> 00:52:41,279 Speaker 1: our philosophical hypotheticals, our attempts to get you to, you know, 811 00:52:41,760 --> 00:52:44,520 Speaker 1: comment on physical policy. Appreciate you playing along. 812 00:52:45,400 --> 00:52:48,160 Speaker 4: You guys do great work. Thank you, it's really my pleasure, 813 00:52:48,280 --> 00:52:50,320 Speaker 4: and thank you for for inviting. Thanks. 814 00:52:50,520 --> 00:52:52,280 Speaker 2: We're going to send that clip to our bosses. 815 00:52:54,200 --> 00:52:55,000 Speaker 1: Take care, Austin. 816 00:52:55,239 --> 00:53:09,080 Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you, Tracy. 817 00:53:09,120 --> 00:53:12,319 Speaker 1: I really like the way he sort of frame this 818 00:53:12,440 --> 00:53:16,239 Speaker 1: sort of golden path question, which is that theft the 819 00:53:16,280 --> 00:53:19,240 Speaker 1: soft landing question, which is, you know, there's a few 820 00:53:19,280 --> 00:53:22,439 Speaker 1: things we would want to see to know that we're 821 00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:26,319 Speaker 1: getting back to something to the fence goals, and at 822 00:53:26,440 --> 00:53:28,759 Speaker 1: least so far as he sees it, and I think 823 00:53:28,800 --> 00:53:31,680 Speaker 1: it makes a good case. There hasn't been anything to 824 00:53:31,760 --> 00:53:34,440 Speaker 1: disprove it. It doesn't mean it's guaranteed to happen, but 825 00:53:34,520 --> 00:53:36,680 Speaker 1: we have yet to have something that says, oh no, no, 826 00:53:36,719 --> 00:53:37,479 Speaker 1: we're off the path. 827 00:53:37,719 --> 00:53:37,959 Speaker 4: Well. 828 00:53:38,040 --> 00:53:42,440 Speaker 2: Also, his point about keeping interest rates high as inflation 829 00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:47,040 Speaker 2: falls being a de facto tightening that makes a lot 830 00:53:47,040 --> 00:53:48,840 Speaker 2: of sense to me, and I think that kind of 831 00:53:48,840 --> 00:53:51,879 Speaker 2: plays into the long and variable lags idea that we're 832 00:53:51,960 --> 00:53:54,200 Speaker 2: still seeing the effects of a lot of higher interest 833 00:53:54,280 --> 00:53:58,799 Speaker 2: rates kind of filter through. That said, I wonder if 834 00:53:58,800 --> 00:54:04,560 Speaker 2: there's sort of a tension between forward guidance and crushing, 835 00:54:05,040 --> 00:54:11,160 Speaker 2: crushing inflation expectations while maintaining the flexibility that the Fed 836 00:54:11,280 --> 00:54:14,720 Speaker 2: is clearly trying to hold on too, right, because Austin 837 00:54:14,800 --> 00:54:18,160 Speaker 2: was very adamant about well, you know, we don't want 838 00:54:18,160 --> 00:54:23,040 Speaker 2: to bind ourselves to any one particular path, which all 839 00:54:23,040 --> 00:54:26,720 Speaker 2: makes sense from their perspective, But if the big wild 840 00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:30,680 Speaker 2: card is inflation expectations, then I don't know, it feels 841 00:54:30,719 --> 00:54:31,719 Speaker 2: like there's a tension there. 842 00:54:32,239 --> 00:54:37,759 Speaker 1: I still feel some level of unsatisfaction. It's not like 843 00:54:37,800 --> 00:54:40,600 Speaker 1: Austin or anything we're saying, but this question of like, okay, 844 00:54:40,680 --> 00:54:42,920 Speaker 1: if inflation is coming down, right, it is, it's come 845 00:54:42,960 --> 00:54:45,400 Speaker 1: down a lot, and as he said, the last actually 846 00:54:45,480 --> 00:54:47,719 Speaker 1: last few months, like they're really like, you know, it's 847 00:54:47,840 --> 00:54:49,719 Speaker 1: it's been really cool. Maybe it'll pick back up a 848 00:54:49,760 --> 00:54:53,360 Speaker 1: little bit. Why do we just see the sustained day 849 00:54:53,440 --> 00:54:56,759 Speaker 1: after day pressure And you could tell a story kind 850 00:54:56,760 --> 00:55:00,040 Speaker 1: of like Austin has, which is that, well, that's the 851 00:55:00,000 --> 00:55:01,520 Speaker 1: the market saying the Fed is going to do its 852 00:55:01,600 --> 00:55:04,040 Speaker 1: job right. So that's I guess there's a positive spin 853 00:55:04,280 --> 00:55:07,279 Speaker 1: but why does the Fed need to keep rates? Why 854 00:55:07,360 --> 00:55:10,440 Speaker 1: is the market anticipating that the Fed will need to 855 00:55:10,520 --> 00:55:13,439 Speaker 1: keep rates as high as they are just to get 856 00:55:13,480 --> 00:55:16,960 Speaker 1: back to macro conditions? Like Lisa a few years ago, 857 00:55:17,320 --> 00:55:19,200 Speaker 1: I sort of feel like the answer must on some 858 00:55:19,400 --> 00:55:22,080 Speaker 1: level have to do with the big a shift in 859 00:55:22,120 --> 00:55:26,120 Speaker 1: fiscal policy. But I'm not really sure. But like, you know, 860 00:55:26,280 --> 00:55:29,759 Speaker 1: it's great that, it's great that on low employment, it's 861 00:55:29,800 --> 00:55:32,920 Speaker 1: great if inflation gets back to two percent, But I 862 00:55:32,920 --> 00:55:35,840 Speaker 1: don't want to pay eight percent for a mortgage, you know, Like, 863 00:55:35,880 --> 00:55:37,560 Speaker 1: why do I didn't need to pay eight percent for 864 00:55:37,640 --> 00:55:39,560 Speaker 1: mortgage in twenty nineteen for these conditions. 865 00:55:39,600 --> 00:55:41,360 Speaker 2: No, it's a good point. It's also I mean, just 866 00:55:41,400 --> 00:55:46,160 Speaker 2: to put it more simplistically, it feels like inflation is 867 00:55:46,200 --> 00:55:49,600 Speaker 2: coming down, but we're still not entirely sure why or 868 00:55:49,640 --> 00:55:52,799 Speaker 2: if interest rate hikes actually had much to do with it, 869 00:55:52,840 --> 00:55:56,520 Speaker 2: because again, as Austin pointed out, things like the most 870 00:55:56,560 --> 00:56:00,400 Speaker 2: interest rate sensitive portions of the economy like housing, have 871 00:56:00,480 --> 00:56:03,160 Speaker 2: kind of surprised to the upside, at least for now. 872 00:56:03,480 --> 00:56:03,680 Speaker 4: Yeah. 873 00:56:03,760 --> 00:56:07,319 Speaker 1: No, it really does seem like on some level a 874 00:56:07,360 --> 00:56:10,279 Speaker 1: big chunk of the inflation and it, you know, I 875 00:56:10,520 --> 00:56:14,400 Speaker 1: not to go back to the old persistent versus transitory debates. 876 00:56:14,640 --> 00:56:17,719 Speaker 1: But at least on some level, a big chunk of 877 00:56:17,760 --> 00:56:21,000 Speaker 1: the rise in inflation in the fall seems to have 878 00:56:21,120 --> 00:56:24,640 Speaker 1: to be seems to do with sort of economic dislocation, 879 00:56:24,800 --> 00:56:27,200 Speaker 1: is related to COVID whatever they are. And then the 880 00:56:27,320 --> 00:56:30,400 Speaker 1: question is is it all of it? Is it eighty 881 00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:32,359 Speaker 1: percent of it? Is it fifty percent of it? And 882 00:56:32,400 --> 00:56:34,640 Speaker 1: what is it actually going to take to get to, 883 00:56:34,760 --> 00:56:36,439 Speaker 1: you know, the end of the golden path. 884 00:56:36,560 --> 00:56:39,600 Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, all right, Well for now, shall we leave 885 00:56:39,600 --> 00:56:39,799 Speaker 2: it there? 886 00:56:39,920 --> 00:56:40,600 Speaker 1: Let's leave it there. 887 00:56:40,640 --> 00:56:43,880 Speaker 2: Okay, this has been another episode of the Odd Thoughts podcast. 888 00:56:43,920 --> 00:56:46,840 Speaker 2: I'm Tracy Alloway. You can follow me at Tracy Alloway. 889 00:56:47,200 --> 00:56:50,000 Speaker 1: I'm Joe Wisenthal. You can follow me at the Stalwart. 890 00:56:50,120 --> 00:56:54,000 Speaker 1: Follow our guest Austin Goolesby. He's at Austin Underscore Goulesby. 891 00:56:54,400 --> 00:56:58,040 Speaker 1: Follow our producers Carmen Rodriguez at Carmen Arman, dash O 892 00:56:58,080 --> 00:57:01,040 Speaker 1: Bennett at dashbod and a big thanks to Moses Onam. 893 00:57:01,360 --> 00:57:04,879 Speaker 1: Follow all of the Bloomberg podcasts under the handle at podcasts, 894 00:57:05,160 --> 00:57:07,719 Speaker 1: and for more oddlogs content, go to Bloomberg dot com 895 00:57:07,760 --> 00:57:10,960 Speaker 1: slash odd Lots where we post transcripts, a blog and 896 00:57:11,000 --> 00:57:14,200 Speaker 1: a newsletter, and you can chat about all this in 897 00:57:14,280 --> 00:57:17,560 Speaker 1: our discord People Talking There twenty four to seven. There's 898 00:57:17,600 --> 00:57:19,880 Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of conversation in there about monetary 899 00:57:19,920 --> 00:57:23,120 Speaker 1: policy in this one discord dot gg slash online. 900 00:57:23,400 --> 00:57:26,360 Speaker 2: And if you enjoy odd Lots, if you like our 901 00:57:26,480 --> 00:57:29,640 Speaker 2: interviews with FED policymakers, if you want us to work 902 00:57:29,680 --> 00:57:32,600 Speaker 2: our way up to Jerome Powell, then please leave us 903 00:57:32,640 --> 00:57:36,040 Speaker 2: a positive review on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for 904 00:57:36,120 --> 00:57:36,480 Speaker 2: listening 905 00:58:02,320 --> 00:58:03,280 Speaker 3: In AG