Fed Chair Jerome Powell: “Whether we can execute a soft landing or not, it may actually depend on factors that we don’t control.”
After steering the U.S. central bank through an unprecedented series of challenges from the pandemic, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and the Federal Open Market Committee face another critical test: controlling the highest inflation in decades without tipping the economy into a recession.
Last week, the Fed announced the biggest interest hike in 22 years and plans for reducing the Fed’s nearly $9 trillion balance sheet.
“What we can control is demand, we can’t really affect supply with our policies,” Powell told Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal in an interview Thursday. “And supply is a big part of the story here. But more than that, there are huge events, geopolitical events going on around the world, that are going to play a very important role in the economy in the next year or so. So the question whether we can execute a soft landing or not, it may actually depend on factors that we don’t control.”
Ryssdal: Let me start with your most recent press conference. At the beginning, you went out of your way, I think it’s fair to say, to speak directly to the American people — you actually use those words. Do you think you’re getting through to the American people?
