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FOMC Rate Decision & Warsh Presser — Full Transcript & Summa

*The Federal Reserve FOMC Presser & Rate Decision | Kevin Warsh*

1h 33m video Published Jun 17, 2026 Transcribed Jun 30, 2026 M Meet Kevin
Intermediate 15 min read For: Investors, traders, and finance professionals interested in Federal Reserve policy and market analysis.
AI Trust Score 85/100
✅ Highly Legit

"Title accurately describes the FOMC presser and rate decision, but the focus on Kevin Warsh is slightly exaggerated as the host spends significant time on his own analysis."

AI Summary

This video provides a detailed analysis of the Federal Reserve's FOMC meeting, the first under new Chair Kevin Warsh. The host breaks down the Summary of Economic Projections (SEP), the rate decision, and Warsh's press conference, offering a bullish long-term outlook despite short-term market volatility.

[02:05]
SEP Shows One Rate Hike Priced In

The median view of the Fed funds rate at the end of 2026 is 3.8%, implying one 25 basis point rate hike. The projection then shows a cut in 2027 and another in 2028, returning to current levels.

[04:43]
New Shorter Statement

The FOMC statement is drastically shorter, described as 'practically a tweet.' It removes forward guidance, reflecting Warsh's view that the Fed has been overcommunicating.

[08:56]
Market Overreaction to SEP

The host notes the market sold off on the SEP, but argues this was an overreaction since the bond market had already priced in a rate hike. The SEP is actually more benign than market expectations.

[09:54]
One Hawkish Member

One FOMC participant projects rates as high as 4.4%, a significant hawkish outlier. The host calls this person a 'knucklehead' and notes the central tendency moved up to 3.9%.

[12:51]
50/50 Split on Rate Hike

Analysis of the dot plot shows nine members favor a rate hike and nine do not, a 50/50 split. The host considers this better news than the market expected, which had priced in two hikes.

[14:50]
Inflation Expected to Decline Without Hikes

With 50% of members not pricing in a hike, the average still sees core inflation declining by 1% over the next year, driven by rollover of tariffs, Iran effects, and AI supply shortages.

[18:56]
Warsh's Opening Statement

Warsh delivers a short, scripted opening, emphasizing a 'new chapter' for the Fed. He announces five task forces to review communications, balance sheet, data, productivity/jobs, and inflation frameworks.

[36:20]
Warsh Abstains from SEP

Warsh confirms he did not submit his own projections, consistent with his long-held views on the SEP. He encourages colleagues to continue submitting but hints at future changes.

[40:27]
Task Force Details

Warsh outlines five task forces: 1) Fed communications, 2) balance sheet, 3) data sources, 4) productivity and jobs in an era of transformation (including AI), and 5) inflation frameworks. They are expected to report by year-end.

[41:24]
2% Inflation Target Unchanged

Warsh states the 2% inflation target is not under review. He says, 'I see no reason until we have reestablished our commitment and ability to deliver on the 2% inflation objective to revisit that.'

[45:54]
Warsh Punted Questions to Task Forces

Throughout the press conference, Warsh repeatedly defers questions to the task forces, saying 'We've got a task force for that.' The host finds this frustrating but notes it may be a strategy to reduce market-moving commentary.

[53:10]
Warsh on Forward Guidance and Market Volatility

Warsh argues that financial markets perform best when they react to incoming data, not to Fed forward guidance. He wants markets to focus on economic data rather than guessing the Fed's reaction.

[58:09]
Host's Verdict: Bullish Long-Term

The host concludes the press conference is bullish. He believes Warsh will change the inflation measure (e.g., to Dallas Fed trimmed mean), which would show inflation near 2% and justify rate cuts.

[01:26:00]
Market Mispricing Rate Hikes

The host points out that the CME FedWatch tool shows an 80% chance of a rate hike by year-end, but he believes this is wrong. He argues the SEP and Warsh's comments suggest a hold bias, creating a buying opportunity.

[01:32:00]
Long-Term Rate Outlook

The host reiterates his thesis that by 2032, rates will be lower than ever before, potentially returning to negative rates in Europe and lower 30-year yields in the US. He sees Warsh as likely to cut rates over his term.

Kevin Warsh's first FOMC meeting signals a significant shift in Fed communication and data analysis, with a focus on real-time data and AI. While the market initially reacted negatively to the SEP, the host argues this is a mispricing and that Warsh's approach is ultimately bullish for long-term rate cuts.

Mentioned in this Video

Study Flashcards (12)

What is the median Fed funds rate projection for the end of 2026 according to the SEP?

easy Click to reveal answer

3.8%

02:05

How many FOMC members submitted projections?

easy Click to reveal answer

18 out of 19

02:42

What is the unemployment rate projection for the end of 2026?

medium Click to reveal answer

4.3%

02:52

What is the GDP growth projection for 2026?

medium Click to reveal answer

2.2%

03:04

When is PCE inflation expected to return to the 2% target?

medium Click to reveal answer

2028

03:45

What was the vote on the rate decision?

easy Click to reveal answer

Unanimous (11-0) to hold rates steady.

03:19

What is the highest individual rate projection for 2026?

hard Click to reveal answer

4.4%

09:46

How many task forces did Kevin Warsh announce?

easy Click to reveal answer

Five

37:07

Name the five areas of the task forces.

hard Click to reveal answer

Fed communications, balance sheet, data sources, productivity and jobs, and inflation frameworks.

37:10

Did Kevin Warsh submit his own economic projections?

medium Click to reveal answer

No, he abstained.

36:20

What is the host's prediction for the inflation measure the Fed might adopt?

hard Click to reveal answer

Dallas Fed trimmed mean PCE.

01:06:49

What was the market's probability of a rate hike by year-end according to the CME FedWatch?

medium Click to reveal answer

80%

01:22:37

💡 Key Takeaways

📊

SEP Implies One Rate Hike

This is the key data point that drove market reaction and the host's analysis.

02:05
💡

Statement Shortened Dramatically

Signals a major shift in Fed communication style under Warsh.

04:43
⚖️

Warsh Abstains from SEP

Confirms his long-standing skepticism of the SEP and hints at future changes.

36:20
📊

2% Target Not Under Review

Provides clarity that the Fed's inflation target remains unchanged for now.

41:24
⚖️

Warsh on Forward Guidance

Articulates a philosophy that markets should focus on data, not Fed signals.

53:10
💡

Potential Change in Inflation Measure

The host's key bullish thesis: switching to trimmed mean could justify rate cuts.

01:06:49

[00:02] All right. All right. All right. Welcome

[00:04] back everyone to another Federal Reserve

[00:07] meeting. Boy, it's uh it's been what,

[00:09] like six weeks since we've done one of

[00:10] these. Uh and uh you know, it's going to

[00:12] be kind of interesting because this will

[00:14] be the first one that we don't have good

[00:16] old JPL for. It's almost like, you know,

[00:20] it was bittersweet. When he had his last

[00:22] meeting, we were kind of thinking, hey,

[00:23] is he going to get a standing ovation?

[00:25] He didn't get a standing ovation. He

[00:27] didn't get applause, but he didn't get a

[00:28] standing ovation. Yeah. So, it's going

[00:30] to be interesting. We've got about um 90

[00:33] seconds to go until we get the potential

[00:36] um uh for you know a rate hike built

[00:39] into the SCP. We don't actually think

[00:42] we're going to get any kind of move

[00:44] today uh on rate cut or rate hike.

[00:47] Today's going to be all about the setup.

[00:49] What are we going to get for uh rate

[00:52] cuts in the future? A lot of people are

[00:54] really worried about rate uh hikes in

[00:57] the future. So, we'll see how that goes.

[01:00] Uh, but uh, again, we're about 60

[01:02] seconds away here from the summary of

[01:04] economic projections coming out. As that

[01:06] summary of economic projections comes

[01:07] out, I'm going to go through all of the

[01:10] details of the summary of economic

[01:11] projections. I'll read them off the wire

[01:13] services and uh, then we'll get into

[01:15] some of the details. We'll make a bingo

[01:17] board for the actual presser. Uh, we

[01:20] will get that rate decision. Again,

[01:21] we're not expecting a move, but we'll

[01:22] get that rate decision in about 40

[01:24] seconds. and uh expecting that hold uh

[01:27] summary of economic projections is going

[01:29] to be where the entertainment is and

[01:30] then of course we'll get into bingo

[01:31] board and you know what's war going to

[01:33] say and all that good stuff. So uh we'll

[01:36] find out uh what happens here and what

[01:39] kind of uh what kind of new joy we get,

[01:42] what kind of new phrases we get, what

[01:44] kind of changes we get. I wouldn't be

[01:45] surprised if Wars actually ends up

[01:47] getting rid of the summary of economic

[01:49] projections uh in general. Uh, and

[01:52] honestly that wouldn't be that big of a

[01:53] deal because even Jerome Powell had sort

[01:55] of suggested getting rid of them in the

[01:56] past. But, um, we shall see. We shall

[02:01] see.

[02:02] Uh, all right. Here we go. Okay. Federal

[02:05] Reserve median view of Fed funds rate at

[02:07] the end of 2026. 3.8. There it is.

[02:09] That's one rate hike built in uh for the

[02:12] end of 2026. End of 2028 back to 34. So,

[02:16] basically, we're expecting to go up uh

[02:18] one, at least one hike, potentially two

[02:22] depending on how these votes play out.

[02:24] Uh and then back down to where we are by

[02:26] 2028. So, a little bit of a hike is

[02:29] being priced in. 25 basis points of

[02:31] hikes priced in for 2026,

[02:34] followed by 25 basis points of cuts in

[02:36] 27, and actually another 25 basis points

[02:38] of cuts in 2028. Uh, we've got only 18

[02:42] of 19 policy makers submitted

[02:45] projections. I wouldn't be surprised if

[02:46] Worsh was the one guy who's like, I'm

[02:48] not doing projections. I bet you he's

[02:50] the one. Uh, policy makers see 4.3%

[02:52] unemployment rate at the end of 26

[02:54] versus 4.4 in the March projections,

[02:56] which means we're seeing uh the Fed

[02:58] members start indicating the employment

[03:00] market stabilizing. I've got um 2.2% on

[03:04] GDP growth in 2026 versus 2.4 seen in

[03:07] March. So a little bit of a write down

[03:09] on GDP but nothing dramatic there. Job

[03:11] gains have kept pace with the workforce.

[03:13] Unemployment rate changed little.

[03:14] Productivity growth capital investment

[03:16] are strong. Uh Fed uh Fed in favor of

[03:19] policy uh holding firm was uh unanimous.

[03:23] So uh everybody voted for it. Uh the

[03:26] committee reaffirmed policy of

[03:27] maintaining ample reserves in the

[03:28] banking system. Fine. Growth capital

[03:31] investments are strong. activity

[03:32] expanding at a solid pace despite

[03:34] elevated uncertainty due to in part of

[03:37] the Middle East. That's part of the

[03:39] anticipation as well. Uh we have let's

[03:42] see uh let's see Fed projections showing

[03:45] PC inflation is not expected to return

[03:47] to 2% target until 2028 unchanged from

[03:50] the March projection. So basically a

[03:53] slow sort of schlog down uh on

[03:57] inflation. Uh waiting for let's see here

[04:01] what else we have. Uh we've got uh okay

[04:05] let's listen to Steve just for a moment

[04:07] here while I pull up some docs.

[04:08] >> Upgrade both core and headline PCE

[04:10] inflation forecast to 3.6 from 3 2.7 uh

[04:14] this year on headline and from 27 to 33

[04:17] on core. The core remains elevated next

[04:20] year. That might be important uh at 2

[04:22] and a half%. So I'm recap capping here.

[04:25] A unanimous vote a much shorter

[04:27] >> Yeah. Their website actually does not

[04:29] have the Oh, there it is. It just came

[04:30] out. Project material. Okay. Play

[04:32] >> stuff from the statement that was really

[04:34] my opinion kind of worthless uh about

[04:36] how the Fed will make its decisions. Um

[04:38] and they also show a divided committee

[04:40] when it comes to the outlook on rates.

[04:42] Brian, back to you.

[04:43] >> This statement is so short. It's

[04:46] practically a tweet. I mean, this entire

[04:48] statement is one sentence, then two

[04:51] sentences, then two more.

[04:53] >> Here it is. I got it. Here's the

[04:55] statement. So, they've really reduced

[04:56] this. Look at this. Uh the Fed Open

[04:58] Market Committee approved the following

[05:00] statement for release. The Fed decided

[05:01] to maintain the target Fed funds rate uh

[05:04] between 3 and 1 half to three and a

[05:05] quarter uh following the Fed's dual

[05:07] mandate of reffirmed ample reserves in

[05:10] the banking system. Some uncertainty due

[05:12] to the Middle East inflation uh elevated

[05:14] relative to 2% goal. And you can see

[05:17] this is a lot sharper or sorry shorter.

[05:19] And that's part of Worsh's goals to stop

[05:22] trying to overcommunicate is his opinion

[05:25] that the Fed has been overcommunicating.

[05:26] I wonder if this meeting is going to be

[05:28] a lot shorter now. So unanimous hold.

[05:31] Not a surprise that we got a unanimous

[05:33] hold. Let's go look at the summary of

[05:34] economic projections in detail now. All

[05:37] right, here we go. So this is the actual

[05:41] SCP here. All right, let's see what we

[05:45] have here. We've got uh the unemployment

[05:48] rate. You can see no concerns here about

[05:51] the unemployment rate at all. This is

[05:53] pretty much green. Honestly, it should

[05:54] be green. Uh green across the board.

[05:57] There's really nobody as far as the

[05:59] averages here or the median uh

[06:01] suggesting there would be any kind of

[06:02] movement up on the unemployment rate.

[06:04] Now, if I look at range,

[06:06] excuse me, the highest uh estimate for

[06:08] the unemployment rate I see is in 2026

[06:11] and 7 at 4.6. But every single person

[06:14] submitting a projection does not

[06:16] actually see the unemployment rate going

[06:19] up. Now, as far as inflation, we can see

[06:23] the highest estimate for core PC is 3

[06:26] 1/2 4.1 on headline and that rapidly

[06:30] goes down in 2026 to 28 to 30. Now, I

[06:35] personally think that, you know, they'll

[06:37] project this potential. Let's take a

[06:39] look at the market here really quickly.

[06:40] uh they'll project this 25 basis point

[06:43] rate hike this year, but I think they

[06:45] won't actually end up hiking this year.

[06:47] Uh we did anticipate this morning that

[06:49] they would price in uh a rate hike for

[06:53] the year. I'm actually surprised the

[06:55] market is reacting negatively to that

[06:57] though because the bond market has

[06:59] already been pricing in a rate hike this

[07:02] year. So, a little bit surprising, but

[07:04] the market is reacting negatively to

[07:07] this number right here. So let's go

[07:09] ahead and highlight this. Uh right there

[07:12] you can see that increase of about 40

[07:14] basis points. Uh bond market was already

[07:19] pricing in one hike for 2026. Mark uh

[07:22] QQQ

[07:24] um did turn down on this release. Uh

[07:28] WASH may downplay with talk though.

[07:31] That's the big hope here is that WASH

[07:34] comes out and ends up downplaying this

[07:36] and then that's how the market can

[07:38] actually end up going up today. But this

[07:40] is u this really should not have been a

[07:43] surprise but the market is acting like a

[07:45] this is a surprise. Should not have been

[07:47] a surprise. What's actually interesting

[07:49] is that they only price in one hike and

[07:52] then they go right back down. Uh market

[07:55] was pricing in one hike for 2026 and one

[07:58] hike for 2027. So two total. This

[08:02] document is actually much more benign,

[08:04] right? This document is saying uh this

[08:08] document prices in 25 BP this year and

[08:11] 25 BP uh and and negative 25 BP next

[08:15] year. So basically up and down that's

[08:17] what you're pricing it. I actually don't

[08:19] think that's going to happen because

[08:20] that's kind of what they did in the 70s

[08:22] where you went up and down a lot and you

[08:24] made too many adjustments. Uh and Jerome

[08:26] Powell is going to be really anti that.

[08:28] Uh 1970s saw a lot of up and down

[08:32] adjustments. Oh my goodness, stupid PDF

[08:35] editor here does this. When I'm in the

[08:36] middle of typing, it just freaks out. Uh

[08:38] there we go. 1970 saw a lot of up and

[08:41] down adjustments which uh contributed to

[08:44] a lack of faith and confidence

[08:48] uh in the Fed. They were basically

[08:49] extremely responsive to you know random

[08:53] whims of the market uh in the 70s. Uh so

[08:56] a little bit surprising here. uh that uh

[08:59] this is actually better than the market

[09:01] had been pricing in yet the market is

[09:03] selling off on that. Uh okay, maybe the

[09:06] market was blind to what the bond market

[09:08] was pricing in. In other words, the

[09:09] stock market was blind to the bond

[09:11] market's pricing. Possible. Uh it just

[09:13] seems odd. Bond markets usually that uh

[09:16] you know crystal ball if you will or or

[09:18] like we talked about in the course

[09:20] member live stream, the Lord of the

[09:21] Rings palunteer.

[09:23] I literally just saw the first um Lord

[09:26] of the Rings of the trilogy. I'm like

[09:28] one and a half movies deep. I gotta say

[09:30] I totally understand why people are

[09:31] totally in love with this. I'm really

[09:33] excited. Like Tolken, what a bad. Uh but

[09:35] anyway, uh so as we can see here, the uh

[09:39] longer range, you actually do have

[09:41] somebody who thinks that rates could go

[09:44] as high as 4.4%.

[09:46] That's like a 100 bases. Look at that.

[09:48] Holy smokes. Hold on. Am I in the rates

[09:51] here? Yeah, dude. Somebody's going mega

[09:54] hawk. Look at this. In March, somebody

[09:58] had a high of 3.6. That moved to 4.4.

[10:02] Someone really honked this meeting. Uh,

[10:06] and if I look at the central tendency,

[10:08] that should be gone. Uh, no, that moved

[10:12] up as well. So, even on the central

[10:14] tendency, you moved up to 3.9. So, uh,

[10:18] let's write that down too here. Even on

[10:21] central uh tendency we got two hikes. So

[10:26] on central we got two hikes on median.

[10:31] So median versus I guess average

[10:34] probably. Uh we got uh we got one hike

[10:37] over here. I mean that's pretty close.

[10:39] This is 40 basis points. That's 50 basis

[10:41] points. And uh somebody really hawkked

[10:43] over here to pull up the range. That's

[10:45] quite interesting. Let's uh let's look

[10:47] at the GDP projection here. So change in

[10:50] GDP pretty consistent at 2%. You don't

[10:53] actually see much change in 27. There's

[10:57] really nothing that's been changed here.

[10:59] If you look at the range, you do have

[11:01] somebody who thinks the market's

[11:02] actually going to be running hot. And

[11:04] that's probably the same person who's

[11:07] coming in uh with this 4.4 rate. So uh

[11:12] let's see here. Someone thinks GDP will

[11:16] run hot.

[11:18] There we go. Okay.

[11:23] All right. So, uh let's see here then.

[11:27] Let's look at the actual dots. They'll

[11:29] give us a little bit more color on where

[11:31] they are all placed. So,

[11:35] this is the target range for the Fed

[11:38] funds rate. you could see that that

[11:41] trend down is still occurring, right? Uh

[11:44] so the committee in general is still

[11:47] committed to this idea of uh of a

[11:50] downtrend uh in rates which is I think

[11:53] appropriate. I actually have this

[11:55] mindset and it's really actually partly

[11:57] an investing thesis as well that by 2032

[12:01] we'll see lower rates than ever before.

[12:03] like will potentially be back to

[12:04] negative interest rates uh in Europe and

[12:07] maybe lower 30-year rates here in

[12:09] America, which you know has some

[12:10] benefits obviously for even companies

[12:12] like, you know, Robin Hood now doing

[12:14] mortgage referrals or SoFi now getting

[12:16] into uh uh home lending. Their home

[12:20] lending business, if you haven't been

[12:21] paying attention to it, it's

[12:22] understandable, but their home lending

[12:24] business has actually been growing at

[12:26] the fastest pace of all of their actual

[12:28] lending products. Uh, and it's a

[12:30] horrible time right now for home loans,

[12:32] which makes SoFi somewhat interesting.

[12:34] But, uh, as you can see here, this the

[12:36] thickness is what moved. So, this

[12:39] thickness

[12:41] right here just shot up about one, but

[12:45] you only have one knucklehead who's

[12:48] really high at that 4.4 range. That's

[12:51] only one dot. And we actually went from

[12:54] uh, and this is 2027, so to be clear,

[12:56] this is 2026. Uh, and you still have

[12:58] that same knucklehead right here who's

[13:00] sort of maintaining this this elevated

[13:02] outlook. Most of the dogs uh are are

[13:05] down here uh in the uh the mid3s to um

[13:10] uh lower 3s range, especially when you

[13:12] get into 2027.

[13:14] So um

[13:17] I don't know. I don't I don't see the

[13:19] votes for a rate hike because I have 1 2

[13:22] 3 4 5 6 7 8 nine. Not all of them will

[13:25] vote. One, two, three, four, five, six,

[13:28] seven, eight, nine. I've got nine and

[13:30] nine. We're 5050 honestly on a rate

[13:33] hike. 5050 on dots for a rate hike. Uh

[13:37] market was pricing in two. This is

[13:40] better news than expected again. Uh now

[13:44] again, we just need WSH to uh talk this

[13:47] down.

[13:49] Uh let's write that down. I now expect

[13:52] WSH to talk down the um

[13:56] the rate hike potential.

[14:00] All right, good. So, we'll do some bingo

[14:04] in just a moment. Uh let's see what we

[14:07] have here. Distribution of participants.

[14:08] That's fine. This we've got here a range

[14:12] for GDP. Uh this is where we're going to

[14:15] find the 2026.

[14:18] Why don't I see the one GDP guy who's

[14:20] going crazy with the the 4% in the

[14:24] range? I don't know if they're just not

[14:25] showing that. All right. Unemployment

[14:28] rate,

[14:31] you've only got one person expecting it

[14:33] to go up to 4.6.

[14:35] PCE inflation, most people are

[14:38] relatively uh stable here around 3 and a

[14:40] half, expecting that longer term to

[14:42] return to 2%. Core PCE, same thing, 3.3.

[14:47] so elevated for a while by 2027. See,

[14:50] you know, this is, you know, with with

[14:52] 50% of the members not pricing in a

[14:55] hike, you're still expecting this

[14:57] decline in the next year. So with that's

[15:00] important to write down with 50% of

[15:01] members uh not pricing in a hike uh the

[15:06] average of members still see and really

[15:10] really the bulk right uh inflation core

[15:14] getting down uh 1% over the next year

[15:19] right if if you thought without rate or

[15:22] without a rate hike we're not going to

[15:23] get inflation down they're really

[15:24] pricing in this roll over so this is a

[15:27] rollover of tariffs, uh, Iran and, uh,

[15:32] you know, possibly, uh, AI supply

[15:34] shortages,

[15:36] uh, sort of a a lapping of annual

[15:39] inflation, if you will.

[15:42] Okay. Very interesting. Uh,

[15:46] somebody's calling this, it's going to

[15:48] be the reverse vulkering. Well, yeah,

[15:50] Vulkar, um, you know, basically jacked

[15:52] up rates to crush the backs of, uh, the

[15:55] back of inflation and restore Federal

[15:56] Reserve credibility. basically put the

[15:58] pants on. Uh yeah, I kind of I I I guess

[16:01] you could call it reverse vulking cuz I

[16:02] kind of think Wars will take the pants

[16:04] off and be like, "We're good, baby.

[16:06] Let's go stripping."

[16:10] So, wow, look at that. The 725 bounce

[16:13] right here within 47 cents of that 725

[16:16] bounce. Uh I'm bullish on Warses

[16:19] talking. I, you know, I'm I'm positive

[16:21] on uh on on this actually being an

[16:23] opportunity, a longerterm buying

[16:25] opportunity. Uh, and I'm uh, you know,

[16:27] we've been calling out uh, Robin Hood,

[16:30] including this morning in our course

[16:32] member liveream, which if you want to

[16:33] join, we just, uh, we just, uh, we don't

[16:35] have an expiration going on right now,

[16:37] but you can always go to meet me.com. I

[16:39] think you can use coupon code pope. But

[16:41] this morning, we called out Robin Hood

[16:43] uh, because the finance sector has

[16:44] really started to uh, to pop off. And

[16:47] look at Robin Hood's performance

[16:48] intraday since our call out. We called

[16:51] it out right here at $96.

[16:55] And uh and it's up almost 12% right now,

[16:58] 11.75%.

[16:59] Uh SoFi also up, but not as extreme as

[17:03] Robin Hood right there off that 1771

[17:06] level. Both uh both I think have quite a

[17:08] bit of upside over the next uh few

[17:10] months as well. But anyway, let's focus

[17:12] on we're going to do some Fed bingo now.

[17:14] So, we're going to put a bingo board

[17:15] together and after we put this bingo

[17:18] board together, we'll uh we'll get into

[17:21] uh some of the other goodies. Okay,

[17:23] let's see here. So,

[17:26] oh, I forgot how to do this. There we

[17:28] go. Uh, you know, if you ever want to

[17:30] know how to, um, this is honestly just a

[17:33] dumb idea. Um, did I do it? Yeah, I did

[17:36] it. Okay. If you ever want to know how

[17:38] to get used to doing custom characters

[17:40] on your phone or like your iPad or

[17:42] whatever, like the the yen symbol or the

[17:45] euro or whatever, just change your

[17:47] password to include some of those

[17:48] freaking letters. Oh my gosh, you'll

[17:50] learn it real fast.

[17:52] But, uh, it also makes it really slow to

[17:55] unlock your stuff. Uh, okay. So, I'm not

[17:58] a fan of fourdigit passcodes while I

[18:00] pull up our bingo board. I, uh, I'm a

[18:03] big fan of like eight digits and letters

[18:05] and all that kind of stuff on your

[18:07] phone. I just feel like the phone's

[18:08] pretty important. And, and most of us

[18:10] have fourdigit passcodes. Uh, too easy

[18:12] to see over your shoulder. All right, so

[18:16] here we go. Bingo board. Popping that

[18:18] in. Coming right up. Uh, so my play

[18:22] here, this is my thesis, okay? I could

[18:24] be wrong, but my thesis is we bottom at

[18:27] 7:25 and we're up from there. And uh,

[18:31] why is this not inserting? Insert, you

[18:33] fart.

[18:34] And start.

[18:36] Okay, well, whatever. We'll get to the

[18:38] bottom of this. You know, maybe I could

[18:39] just use an old one. Uh, that's not

[18:43] convenient.

[18:44] Anyway, I'll I'll get this set situated

[18:47] in just a second. But um 725, I wouldn't

[18:51] be surprised if that's the bottom and

[18:53] we're up from here. Especially since I

[18:54] think I wouldn't, you know, seeing how

[18:56] short that statement is, I now wouldn't

[18:58] be surprised if Kevin Worsh actually

[19:00] ends up making this meeting very short.

[19:02] Uh it just says something basic like uh

[19:04] hey, you know, we are

[19:08] uh I guess let's let's think about this

[19:10] prediction in line with our bingo board.

[19:13] So, uh, if I were Kevin Worsh, what

[19:16] would I say? Uh, well, first thing I

[19:18] would do is I'd probably, if it were me,

[19:20] I'd probably walk out with like a Luigi

[19:21] mug. I'd spawn one in.

[19:25] That's the kind of Fed chair we need is

[19:26] somebody who's going to come out with a

[19:28] Luigi board or, you know, a Luigi um,

[19:30] coffee mug. But anyway, if I were wars,

[19:33] I'd probably say something to the effect

[19:35] of uh inflation shock uh from mediumterm

[19:41] uncertainty due to Iran is likely to

[19:44] fade. Uh we have uh a deal is uh

[19:48] imminent. Uh so I think he'll reference

[19:51] the deal, right? I think that uh oil

[19:55] prices are uh temporarily

[19:59] uh prompting

[20:01] higher headline inflation and some pass

[20:04] through to core. Uh we expect that to

[20:07] resume its downtrend

[20:11] after uh the straight of four moves

[20:13] reopens. This is uh going to sound very

[20:15] Trumpian.

[20:18] Sounds uh Trumpian, right? And then

[20:21] we'll end up getting um something to the

[20:23] effect of um goal is to uh remain

[20:28] stable. That's a key word. Key word

[20:30] right there. remain stable uh on policy

[20:35] uh until there's a greater sign of a

[20:39] data moving in either direction. Uh so

[20:43] that if uh inflation does lap tariffs

[20:48] last year and we see a uh drop in

[20:52] inflation in Q3, Q4, uh we can uh resume

[20:57] an easing bias, right? I think that

[21:00] would be very bullish for markets and

[21:02] understand too uh this would be bullish.

[21:06] Think about the data we've been getting

[21:08] right weekly data on Tuesday indicated

[21:11] about I think we were about 102k jobs

[21:14] per month on ADP. We had retail sales

[21:19] smoked this morning. Uh so really good.

[21:23] Uh even including or uh even excluding

[21:26] gas and cars, right? You've got uh

[21:30] obviously GDP is holding up, AI spent

[21:32] holding up. Uh so, you know, oil prices

[21:36] are coming down, rates are coming down,

[21:37] riots uh rights, oil GDP. Let's go see

[21:40] what the Atlanta Fed GDP is really

[21:42] quickly. Uh because sometimes they

[21:44] they'll reference this. We're at 3% over

[21:47] here on the uh Atlanta GDP. Let's look

[21:50] at Dallas trimmed mean as well.

[21:54] Dallas trimmed mean is

[21:58] so Dallas trimmed mean one month

[22:01] inflation rate trimmed mean right here

[22:04] we're over here at 25.

[22:08] This one, you know, is a little bit more

[22:10] volatile. Yeah, you can see the

[22:12] six-month trimmed mean is up but not

[22:15] that high, right? It's actually pretty

[22:18] close to that that 2% level. uh if this

[22:21] is a tool that you want to use, some

[22:23] people don't. It's considered an

[22:24] alternative measure of core inflation in

[22:27] PCE calculated by staff at the Dallas

[22:29] Fed. So, I actually wouldn't be

[22:31] surprised to see him reference trim

[22:33] mean. If you hear trim mean, it's

[22:35] bullish, right? Uh referencing trimmed

[22:38] uh Dallas Fed trimmed mean would be

[22:41] bullish. Uh that inflation gauge is

[22:45] closer to 2%.

[22:47] Okay. So, let's take some of this and

[22:49] jot it into

[22:52] our um bingo board here and let's see

[22:55] what we have. So,

[22:58] uh and then feel free to mention some

[22:59] bingo ideas uh as well. Let me know what

[23:02] you think. Uh let's It's going to be a

[23:05] little harder. Let's see if he honors

[23:07] the purple tie and if he's on time. All

[23:09] right.

[23:11] Uh okay. Come on, buddy. Come on, Dad.

[23:15] Okay.

[23:17] Am I going to have to use my finger

[23:18] here? Going on the iPad. All right. You

[23:22] know, this is what happens when you get

[23:24] a new fed chair. All the things that

[23:26] used to work just start falling apart.

[23:28] It's all coming to an end. There we go.

[23:33] All right. No problem. No problem. We

[23:35] can get through it. All right. There we

[23:37] go. So, uh, let's see if we can pull it

[23:40] off on time. Uh, should we go purple

[23:44] tie? You know, it feels weird to say

[23:46] purple tie, right? Feels a little weird

[23:48] to say that purple tie.

[23:51] I for some reason I think he's like I

[23:54] picture him as coming out with like a

[23:56] bunch of like messy papers. Uh comes out

[24:01] with messy papers

[24:06] versus some kind of like electronic

[24:08] device, right? I I don't know why I

[24:10] think that. Uh resume down. Okay. Um,

[24:13] talks about deal talks about

[24:18] Iran deal.

[24:22] Mentions trimmed meanions

[24:26] trimmed mean.

[24:31] Okay. By the way, if you haven't tried

[24:33] the uh stock AI app yet, uh that's

[24:35] inside of the Meet Kevin app, there is a

[24:37] free sample portion that you could use.

[24:40] Uh all you have to do is download the

[24:41] Meet Kevin app. It's totally free. So,

[24:43] you just go uh type meet Kevin into the

[24:45] Apple or Android app store and you could

[24:47] get our data tab. You could get the

[24:49] daily wealth, the videos tab, but you

[24:52] could also get the pricing power portion

[24:54] of the stock AI app, which is 1/4th of

[24:57] the stock AAI app. Uh, and of course,

[24:59] there's a lot more in there as well, but

[25:01] it's kind of cool. Uh, and then there's

[25:02] going to be some a new special feature

[25:05] coming out within like the next 24

[25:06] hours. We call it the Alpha Wire

[25:08] service. That's going to blow people's

[25:10] minds and I can't wait to show that off

[25:12] to you. But that should be released

[25:13] within the next uh hopefully 24 hours

[25:15] here. We'll see. Uh but you can download

[25:17] that app for free and uh uh we'll have a

[25:20] uh free period as well where you could

[25:21] use the alpha wire service. So you may

[25:23] as well download the app. Okay. So uh

[25:26] let's see. Uh mentions Tremine talks

[25:28] about the Iran deal, comes out with

[25:30] messy papers, purple tie on time. Uh we

[25:33] think that uh he'll talk about oil

[25:35] temporary, right? Oil

[25:38] temporarily

[25:41] uh temporaril

[25:44] whatever

[25:47] uh increasing inflation.

[25:50] Oh, I think he'll talk about AI

[25:52] deflation is coming. AI deflation

[25:57] coming.

[26:00] Uh, I also think he's going to want to

[26:02] get rid of the SE. Uh, may

[26:06] end SE

[26:09] or make

[26:13] it optional.

[26:16] It's honestly pretty useless in my

[26:18] opinion, and it does move the market,

[26:20] but it's usually wrong.

[26:23] Uh, Fed dual mandate. Yeah, sure. That'd

[26:25] be an easy one. Dual mandate. I mean,

[26:27] he's got to sound a little bit like the

[26:29] traditional Fed hair, right? Dual

[26:31] mandate. Uh, data dependent. Don't we

[26:34] have a halo sound to that? Uh, I thought

[26:37] I did.

[26:39] >> Data dependent.

[26:41] >> There we go.

[26:45] All right.

[26:47] What else do we have here? So, we've got

[26:49] goal is to be stable on policy. I think

[26:51] that's a big one. Stable on policy.

[26:53] That's very bullish. stable on policy.

[26:58] There we go. That would be quite

[27:00] bullish.

[27:02] Uh let's see here.

[27:04] Inflation shock to fade.

[27:08] We wrote that down too. Inflation

[27:12] shocks. Come on.

[27:16] To fade.

[27:19] Okay. Uh we've got uh employment

[27:23] employment improving.

[27:27] and improving. Uh it would also be

[27:31] useful if you said something like don't

[27:33] want to stand in the way, right? Don't

[27:36] uh want to send mixed signals

[27:42] signals

[27:44] by hiking

[27:47] to cut. That would be huge if he said

[27:49] that. And super bullish, right?

[27:52] So, shows up in a red suit, says

[27:54] somebody.

[27:56] Uh okay.

[27:59] So, let's see how yields are doing.

[28:01] Yields right now, yields went up about

[28:04] 2.9 basis points. Interesting. Yeah,

[28:06] this will set the tone. I agree. Uh,

[28:09] let's see here.

[28:12] Great message. Yeah. I don't know. It's

[28:14] it's just the problem is it's it's only

[28:16] a great messaging tool to the extent

[28:17] that it's accurate. And frankly, it's uh

[28:19] it's usually inaccurate. Yeah, I I do

[28:22] wonder if the meeting will be shorter.

[28:25] So, usually we have about an hour of

[28:28] Powell, right? Uh so, uh let's say less

[28:32] than 30 minutes,

[28:36] 30 minute meeting or it should be

[28:39] presser

[28:41] press

[28:44] less than 30 men presser. Uh I think

[28:47] that um easing bias will return

[28:56] to return

[29:00] and I think he'll say we've got to be

[29:02] patient.

[29:05] Uh economy is strong

[29:10] is strong.

[29:14] Let's see here.

[29:17] Uh someone

[29:19] Oh yeah, somebody asks about um

[29:23] uh his his prior like

[29:27] you know his history is asked

[29:31] about being wrong on inflation before

[29:37] inflation in the past. He thought

[29:38] inflation would skyrocket.

[29:40] That would be a great question if

[29:42] somebody hit his record, right? which is

[29:45] fine like you could change your opinion.

[29:48] Uh labor market uh what about uh you

[29:52] know lower rates could broaden

[29:55] lower rates to broaden success.

[30:00] That's a goal often of the Fed is if we

[30:03] get rates down more people can

[30:04] participate whether they're different

[30:06] races or income levels or cultures or

[30:09] you know whatever. That's usually a goal

[30:11] of the Fed, sort of like a side goal is

[30:13] increasing that participation

[30:16] uh in in the wealth effect. So, let's

[30:20] see here.

[30:22] Yeah. No, I know. I I I the Lord of the

[30:25] Rings thing. I know some people were

[30:26] surprised by that, but yeah, I just

[30:27] watched it and I was I was uh studying

[30:30] uh I mean I just I just opened it up. I

[30:32] just started this, too, cuz I I heard

[30:34] you're supposed to watch the trilogy

[30:36] first, but when it comes to the books,

[30:38] you're supposed to start with The

[30:40] Hobbit. So, I got The Hobbit. And uh I'm

[30:43] a little deep in it, but uh yeah, right

[30:47] now I'm learning about um Bilbo's

[30:49] father, who built the most luxurious

[30:52] rabbit hole for her, the mother.

[30:55] I guess I'm not that deep. Anyway, okay,

[30:57] we've got about a minute to go here. I'm

[30:59] running out of things to say, so I got

[31:02] four more things to say. Uh, let's uh

[31:04] fill these in really quickly. Uh, let's

[31:07] do

[31:09] uh valuations elevated. I don't actually

[31:11] think he say it won't say won't say

[31:15] valuations uh elevated.

[31:19] I think he'll say um housing

[31:23] uh to strengthen on lower rates. I think

[31:27] he's going to be pretty bullish on lower

[31:29] rates. Uh then we'll have let's see

[31:32] here. Uh

[31:35] yen carry trade. I don't think so.

[31:38] Dollar dominance. That's the way I would

[31:39] put it. I like that. Dollar dominance

[31:43] and uh maintain Fed independence. One

[31:46] more. Maintain

[31:50] Fed

[31:52] independence.

[31:55] And uh did we do purple tie? We did

[31:57] purple tie already.

[31:59] Uh

[32:01] did we did it on time? Uh I'll I'll just

[32:04] throw in the word uncertainty.

[32:09] Uncertain time. All right. Ready? Let's

[32:12] go.

[32:12] >> Hear war in his first conference to know

[32:14] what buzzwords might be for the future

[32:16] or is it going to be the usual things

[32:17] that it hints of?

[32:18] >> Big red background of that guy. Let's

[32:19] see if he's actually on time.

[32:22] All right. Here he comes out with a

[32:23] clown noise. No. Nose. Oh my gosh.

[32:27] Not my job. Yeah, that's a famous uh

[32:29] Apollo one. Reading from a laptop. Yeah,

[32:32] maybe. Oh, there he is. Oh my gosh. He's

[32:34] got no paper. He's got nothing.

[32:35] >> And here comes new paper. Nothing. But

[32:37] he's on time.

[32:38] >> Good day.

[32:39] >> Is that purple?

[32:40] >> It's an honor, a true honor to be back

[32:43] at the Federal Reserve.

[32:44] >> It's blue.

[32:45] >> And to take up this duty at a time of

[32:47] such

[32:48] >> consequence.

[32:50] I've been especially heartened by the

[32:52] warm welcome of old friends and new

[32:55] colleagues both. And I've listened

[32:58] closely to my fellow FOMC members for a

[33:02] lot of new ideas, new thinking, and

[33:05] genuine interest in moving the Fed

[33:07] forward.

[33:08] This week's FOMC meeting exemplified the

[33:12] very best of the Fed's traditions.

[33:15] Rigorous debate,

[33:17] open-mindedness,

[33:18] commitment to mission,

[33:20] >> boring,

[33:20] >> responsibility,

[33:22] and accountability.

[33:24] >> Does he have a teleprompter?

[33:25] >> No.

[33:26] >> In this business, they all add up to one

[33:29] thing. Getting monetary policy right

[33:33] as near to it as we can do. That is our

[33:37] northstar.

[33:38] >> All right. My colleagues and I are here

[33:41] to serve our legislative remitt, which

[33:43] you've heard us say before, price

[33:45] stability and maximum employment. And

[33:49] these objectives guided our business in

[33:52] the meeting just concluded.

[33:55] As you saw a few moments ago, the

[33:57] committee decided to maintain the target

[33:59] range for the Fed funds rate at 3 and a

[34:02] half to three and 3/4%.

[34:05] In support of the Fed's dual mandate.

[34:08] No.

[34:08] >> The committee also reaffirmed its policy

[34:11] of maintaining ample reserves in the

[34:14] banking system.

[34:16] Economic activity is expanding at a

[34:18] solid pace despite elevated uncertainty

[34:21] that owes in part to the conflict in the

[34:24] Middle East.

[34:25] >> Yep.

[34:26] >> Productivity go growth and capital

[34:28] investment both strong.

[34:31] Job gains have kept pace with the

[34:32] workforce and the unemployment rate has

[34:35] changed little.

[34:37] We recognize that inflation has been

[34:40] running well ahead of the Fed's

[34:42] longstated inflation goal of 2%. That's

[34:46] been going on for more than 5 years.

[34:50] Persistently high prices are a burden

[34:53] for the American people.

[34:55] But the recent past need not be

[34:57] prologue.

[34:59] I am pleased to report that members of

[35:02] the FOMC are unambiguous and unanimous.

[35:07] This committee will deliver price

[35:09] stability.

[35:12] At any institution, a change in

[35:15] leadership is a natural and timely

[35:18] opportunity to reaffirm its mission, to

[35:22] review current practices, and to

[35:25] consider whether those practices best

[35:27] meet our objectives.

[35:30] My Fed colleagues and I will be working

[35:32] in close collaboration to ask what

[35:34] changes might improve the conduct of

[35:37] monetary policy.

[35:39] On that score, you might have already

[35:41] noticed something, a difference in

[35:44] today's policy statement. It's a bit

[35:46] shorter, a bit simpler, and it dispenses

[35:49] with some older language.

[35:51] That statement just gives you the facts

[35:54] as best we can judge it. Absent also is

[35:57] so-called forward guidance, which we

[36:00] agreed was not well suited to the

[36:02] current policy conjuncture.

[36:05] This afternoon, you also received the

[36:08] usual summary of economic projections.

[36:11] It's been the practice of this committee

[36:13] for participants to submit these

[36:15] projections, and I have encouraged my

[36:17] colleagues to continue to do so.

[36:20] >> I, however, have refrained from offering

[36:22] any projections of my own, consistent

[36:25] with my long-held views on the SCP, at

[36:28] least as currently structured.

[36:30] >> Yep, he's the one who did.

[36:31] >> In the medium projections, real GDP

[36:33] rises at 2.2%. 2% this year, 2.3% next

[36:37] year, and total PC inflation runs at

[36:41] 3.6% this year, 2.3% next year. The

[36:46] unemployment rate stands at about 4.3%.

[36:50] The median participant judges at the

[36:52] appropriate federal funds rate to be at

[36:54] 3.8%

[36:56] at the end of this year and 3.6 at the

[36:58] end of next.

[37:00] Let me turn now to a few words on a key

[37:03] initiative that we're announcing today.

[37:07] I'm appointing a task force in each of

[37:09] five areas

[37:10] >> that are central to the broad conduct of

[37:12] monetary policy. First, Fed

[37:15] communications.

[37:18] Second, the Fed's balance sheet. Third,

[37:22] our use and reliance on existing data

[37:25] sources. Uhoh. Fourth, productivity and

[37:28] jobs in an era of transformation. And

[37:31] last, the Fed's inflation frameworks.

[37:34] These subjects are timely,

[37:37] consequential,

[37:39] and in my view, worthy of a fresh look.

[37:42] My colleagues and I discussed them with

[37:44] energy and purpose over the last couple

[37:47] of days. For each of these independent

[37:50] task forces, I'm enlisting some of the

[37:53] very best minds both inside and outside

[37:56] the economics profession.

[37:58] They will be supported by subject matter

[38:00] specialists from our superb Fed staff.

[38:03] And they'll have a straightforward

[38:05] charge. Start with first principles,

[38:08] ask hard questions,

[38:11] examine current practice, consider

[38:14] alternatives,

[38:15] and ultimately propose next steps for

[38:18] policymaker consideration.

[38:20] Since last summer, my colleagues discuss

[38:24] possible improvements in the form and

[38:25] function of Fed communications.

[38:28] This new task force will build on that

[38:31] effort and I expect propose some

[38:34] well-considered changes including to the

[38:36] SCP I mentioned a few moments ago. Uh

[38:39] the second task force, the one on

[38:41] balance sheet policy, will review the

[38:44] benefits and risks of the current ample

[38:46] reserves regime and the composition of

[38:49] the Fed's balance sheet. They will

[38:52] assess alternative frameworks for the

[38:54] conduct and operation of monetary

[38:56] policy.

[38:58] The third task force, the one on data,

[39:01] will evaluate new information sources

[39:04] and consider methodological changes to

[39:07] improve data gathering with the aim of

[39:09] giving policymakers more accurate,

[39:12] relevant contemporaneous

[39:15] and perhaps most important, actionable

[39:18] information on the state of our economy.

[39:20] Fourth, the task force on productivity

[39:23] and jobs. It'll survey the pace, the

[39:27] reach, the economic impact of new

[39:30] general purpose technologies including

[39:33] AI.

[39:34] >> Oh,

[39:34] >> and explore the implications for the for

[39:37] the Fed in pursuit of our employment and

[39:40] inflation mandates. Yeah, this is the

[39:41] last AIDL argument that he's building in

[39:45] >> that'll examine the drivers of inflation

[39:48] first principles and weigh the full

[39:50] range of ideas for delivering price

[39:53] stability in a changing economy.

[39:56] You'll hear quite a bit more about these

[39:58] task forces and this overall initiative

[40:00] in the coming weeks.

[40:02] >> Enough for now to make a simple

[40:04] statement.

[40:04] >> Okay.

[40:05] >> Each task force will serve an objective

[40:08] shared by everyone in the system. shared

[40:10] by everyone around that table that I sat

[40:12] with over the last couple of days. A

[40:15] Federal Reserve that is cleareyed about

[40:17] its mission, fit for purpose, and

[40:20] focused on the future. And with that, I

[40:23] appreciate your attention. I'm happy to

[40:25] take your questions.

[40:27] >> He's actually doing questions.

[40:30] >> Uh hi, Chairman Howard with Roers. Good

[40:32] to see you again and and welcome back.

[40:34] Um uh this is a lot to be putting in

[40:36] motion uh so fast. What is the timeline?

[40:39] uh you have in mind for for each of

[40:41] these.

[40:42] >> So um I think it'll depend on the task

[40:45] force. It also depends on the urgency in

[40:48] which we need clear answers. My

[40:51] expectation I'm still in the business of

[40:54] recruiting and finalizing them. My

[40:56] expectation is the task forces will

[40:58] begin work in the next couple of weeks

[41:00] and we'll start to get some more

[41:02] information from them, some more framing

[41:04] of how they see things starting in the

[41:07] fall and hopefully most if not all of

[41:09] them concluding by year end.

[41:11] >> And uh just specifically on the

[41:13] inflation uh framework, uh you talk

[41:15] about first principles. Does this

[41:17] include a review of the 2% target

[41:20] itself? Uh you've mentioned that things

[41:22] to the right of the decimal point don't

[41:24] matter. Nope.

[41:24] >> Uh should this be starting from a

[41:26] premise that

[41:28] 2% as a point estimate is is too strict?

[41:31] >> Let me break that into two pieces. Uh

[41:33] first on the inflation framework review,

[41:37] their remitt is what are the drivers of

[41:40] inflation? What's the Fed's

[41:41] responsibility for inflation? In part,

[41:44] how do we measure inflation? But that'll

[41:46] overlap with my data group. uh on the 2%

[41:49] inflation objective that is the Federal

[41:52] Reserve's longheld objective of 2%.

[41:55] You've heard me say before uh I tend to

[41:58] focus on the left of the decimal point.

[42:00] Well, the two is the left of the decimal

[42:01] point. For now, zero is to the right. I

[42:04] see no reason until we have

[42:06] reestablished our commitment and ability

[42:09] to deliver on the 2% inflation objective

[42:12] to revisit that. So, that will be

[42:13] outside the scope of what we're taking

[42:15] on.

[42:15] >> Stays firm on that. Good.

[42:18] Colobby,

[42:20] >> thank you so much. Colobby Smith with

[42:22] the New York Times.

[42:22] >> So they could transition to using

[42:24] trimmed mean though and then you'd be a

[42:26] lot closer to 2%, right? They could say,

[42:28] "We're not going to use PCE anymore.

[42:29] We're going to use P trim mean."

[42:31] >> But looking at the SEP, the bulk of your

[42:33] colleagues expect core PCE to run around

[42:35] 3.3% by year end and for the 2%

[42:38] inflation target not to be reached until

[42:40] 2028. So, I'm curious how patient you

[42:43] think the Fed can afford to be at this

[42:46] juncture in terms of waiting for

[42:48] one-time inflation waves to wash

[42:50] through.

[42:50] >> They could basically just use a

[42:52] different formula and get inflation down

[42:55] and then cut rates under the worst

[42:56] regime is kind of what he's setting up.

[42:58] That's actually kind of bullish.

[43:00] >> Some action and raising rates.

[43:02] >> Sure. So, quite a bit there. Let me let

[43:04] me try to break that into pieces. First,

[43:07] we have the capability and commitment to

[43:10] deliver on our price stability objective

[43:12] of 2%. That's exactly what we're going

[43:14] to do. Um, that in the Fed's review of

[43:19] its strategy over the last any number of

[43:21] years in January, the Fed, including the

[43:24] strategy that we're still bound by, the

[43:26] Fed statement says that inflation is

[43:28] primarily determined by monetary policy.

[43:31] You bet it is. I've said for years

[43:34] inflation's is a choice. You bet it is.

[43:37] >> And today I'm announcing that this

[43:39] committee unambiguously and unanimously

[43:42] have decided we are going to deliver on

[43:43] that. The rest of your questions sounded

[43:46] like a encouragement for me to give

[43:48] forward guidance. Uh we've dropped

[43:50] forward guidance. Uh some along the

[43:53] committee I think dropped it I suspect

[43:55] from our discussion the last couple of

[43:56] days because they said at this moment in

[43:59] time it doesn't feel as though providing

[44:01] forward guidance is right. Others have,

[44:04] I'd say, different views and think as a

[44:06] general proposition, forward guidance

[44:08] isn't the business we should be in, but

[44:11] that'll be taken up by the task force on

[44:13] communications and my policymaker

[44:16] uh colleagues. We're going to listen

[44:18] hard to what the experts say and make

[44:19] our own decision. Um, but I can't give

[44:22] you any forward guidance about what

[44:23] we're going to do next. The good news is

[44:25] we'll be meeting in six weeks. So just

[44:27] following up I guess on the current

[44:29] policy settings then I am curious how

[44:31] restrictive you think things are at the

[44:33] current current moment given the flow of

[44:36] data that we've seen and you know

[44:38] forecasts that are coming down the

[44:39] pipeline.

[44:40] >> Yeah I I've heard characterizations both

[44:43] inside and the Fed about that. I'll give

[44:45] you my own. It's uneven. If I look at

[44:48] the housing markets as one example,

[44:52] uh Fed policy isn't the the single

[44:54] determinant of the state of the housing

[44:56] market, but broadly I would say there

[44:58] Fed policy appears to be somewhat

[45:01] restrictive. I would have a hard time uh

[45:05] managing to say those words if I were to

[45:07] see what's happening in financial

[45:09] markets. So I'd say it's uneven.

[45:11] >> That's perhaps a function of different

[45:13] transmission mechanisms of monetary

[45:15] policy. whether monetary policy is

[45:17] coming from our interest rate tool or

[45:19] our balance sheet tool. But the good

[45:21] news, we have a task force on that too.

[45:22] And the balance sheet task force will be

[45:24] looking more at that subject.

[45:26] >> Mike McKe,

[45:29] >> you said you don't like uh forward

[45:31] guidance. You dropped it from the

[45:33] statement this time, but with the dot

[45:35] plot, nine members suggested that they

[45:37] want a rate increase by the end of the

[45:40] year, and the markets have taken that as

[45:43] forward guidance. So, what does this

[45:44] mean in terms of how you guide the

[45:48] markets and in terms of uh what the dot

[45:52] plot's future is?

[45:54] >> Um, I'm going to have to give you the

[45:56] same answer I gave to to Miss Smith.

[45:59] We've got a task force for that. Um,

[46:01] I'll give you a little bit more.

[46:03] >> Punt it all.

[46:04] >> I reviewed the dot plots and when I saw

[46:07] the

[46:07] >> that's going to be this guy's new meme.

[46:09] got a task force to answer that, but I'm

[46:11] not going to answer it.

[46:12] >> Kind of with the big erasers. Um, that's

[46:15] to say that I think my colleagues around

[46:18] the table when they submitted their dots

[46:20] understand the world is changing quite

[46:22] quickly and they didn't feel bound by

[46:24] them 6 weeks from now or 6 days from now

[46:27] and if in the event that their

[46:28] circumstances change. Um, I'll note a

[46:31] couple other things. What I heard around

[46:33] the table was as they submitted their

[46:36] modal forecasts, their modal forecasts

[46:38] to be clear weren't this was more likely

[46:41] than not. This was this was more likely

[46:44] than their other scenarios. So I didn't

[46:47] hear u tons of conviction. What I heard

[46:50] was the kind of humility that I think we

[46:52] should have. I did not submit a a dot.

[46:56] For me, it's not helpful in the conduct

[46:58] of policy. I suspect by year end as I

[47:02] mentioned in my opening statements

[47:04] there'll be a review about

[47:06] communications broadly press conferences

[47:10] dots uh meetings and the like

[47:13] transcripts minutes this will be part of

[47:16] that I don't want to prejudge the

[47:18] outcomes there um but I'm pretty

[47:20] open-minded about what they could be and

[47:22] I was just incredibly impressed over the

[47:25] last couple of days uh my colleagues

[47:27] over the last two days and frankly over

[47:28] the first three weeks I've been here,

[47:30] they've been very open about changes.

[47:33] Change isn't easy. Change is filled with

[47:35] risk. But our number one goal is to get

[47:38] monetary policy right. The way to get

[47:41] monetary policy right is to deliver on

[47:43] the remmit that Congress gave us to

[47:45] deliver on price stability. And there

[47:47] was uh no disagreement on any of those

[47:49] points.

[47:50] >> At the risk of uh possibly getting the

[47:52] same answer about task forces uh

[47:54] communications, uh what is your feeling

[47:57] about these news conferences? Are you

[47:59] going to continue one after every

[48:01] meeting? Uh do you think find them

[48:04] useful? Uh what is

[48:05] >> We have a task force for that. We'll let

[48:07] you know.

[48:08] >> Communicate.

[48:09] >> Well, this one's probably got another 15

[48:11] or 20 minutes in it, so I don't want to

[48:12] prejudge the outcome. Um

[48:15] uh press conferences can be a very

[48:18] useful way to communicate with

[48:20] households, businesses, and more broadly

[48:23] through using the likes of you. I had a

[48:26] a great old mentor named George Schultz

[48:28] and his mantra was press conferences are

[48:31] useful, but when you have one, you want

[48:33] to make sure you have something

[48:34] important to say. Today, I think we had

[48:36] something important to say about our

[48:38] commitment to deliver on price

[48:39] stability, our commitment to rethink

[48:42] practices with an eye of moving the Fed

[48:44] forward. And to give you and the

[48:47] American people a sense that these

[48:48] aren't idle thoughts, these are concrete

[48:50] thoughts. That we're going to seek out

[48:52] the best minds, both the best thinking

[48:54] inside of the Federal Reserve, the best

[48:57] people I know in business and economics

[48:59] and the academy and technology and the

[49:01] rest to share their views. That's what

[49:04] we're going to be doing here, the

[49:05] pursuit of truth. Uh I think we're going

[49:07] to come up with some new and interesting

[49:09] things. Um we made some changes today. I

[49:12] expect more changes to come and uh and

[49:15] some of those might well be worthy of a

[49:16] press conference.

[49:18] >> Chris Rabber.

[49:21] >> Hi uh Chris Rugverber at Associated

[49:23] Press. Thanks for uh taking our

[49:25] questions. Um could you give us a sense

[49:28] of how you see inflation more in the

[49:30] long term? I know you may not want to

[49:31] comment on the ups and downs, but is

[49:33] this mainly driven by energy prices in

[49:36] the Iran war at this point, or do you

[49:37] have any concerns about underlying

[49:39] inflation pressures in the economy?

[49:42] Thank you.

[49:43] >> So, I can't do much better than than the

[49:45] committee just did, so let me let me

[49:47] restate it. Inflation remains elevated

[49:50] relative to the committee's 2% goal, in

[49:53] part reflecting supply shocks that have

[49:55] driven price increases in certain

[49:56] sectors, including energy. That's

[49:59] paragraph goes on to say but to be clear

[50:02] the Fed will deliver price stability. My

[50:04] own judgment is the committee spent

[50:06] quite a bit of time not just in two days

[50:09] but over iterations of a couple of

[50:11] weeks. That's what we're prepared to say

[50:13] about inflation but the commitment to

[50:15] deliver is strong unanimous and

[50:19] unambiguous and that's I think an

[50:21] important message we've missed for five

[50:23] years and uh and we're going to fix

[50:25] that. Well, great. And then just on your

[50:28] the data task force and everything else.

[50:30] I mean, generally speaking, uh I think

[50:32] people feel the feel the Fed looks at

[50:34] everything already. Certainly that was

[50:36] the sense from before.

[50:38] >> Uh what's is there data that you feel is

[50:41] not given enough weight? Uh I mean you

[50:43] mentioned the trim mean in the past, but

[50:44] again that's well known to certainly

[50:46] most Fed members. So what is that task

[50:48] force looking at and and what what might

[50:50] be the I mean I know you don't want to

[50:52] prejudge the outcome but are there

[50:54] examples of data that you expect might

[50:56] be given more weight. Thank you.

[50:58] >> So you're answering my question so let

[51:01] me say I don't want to prejudge the

[51:02] outcome. I also don't want to say too

[51:04] much about what they're going to do

[51:06] because I still have a phone call or two

[51:07] to make before I've nailed down the

[51:09] people that are doing that. Um I'm

[51:11] interested in what the outside experts

[51:13] view is on the subject. I'll say this

[51:16] generally um most of the data that

[51:20] central bankers and other government

[51:22] officials in the United States consume

[51:25] come with old-fashioned survey methods.

[51:28] >> Uh

[51:29] >> uh a national accounts of the what the

[51:31] US economy looks like that looks very

[51:34] little like the US economy in 2026.

[51:38] um survey methods that don't have

[51:40] response rates that we need, asking

[51:42] questions that might have been quite

[51:43] applicable a generation ago that are

[51:45] less applicable now. So even inside of

[51:48] official statistics, I would be

[51:50] open-minded if the task force and our

[51:53] own best thinking had recommendations

[51:56] how those official statistics can be

[51:58] brought up to a standard of of our time

[52:00] using new analytic methods. I'd also say

[52:03] this, almost every private company CEO

[52:07] that's running his or her business are

[52:09] doing so with real time information that

[52:12] isn't subject to much revision, right?

[52:15] >> That is telling them what just happened

[52:16] at that very moment. As you know, there

[52:19] are normal long and variable lags in the

[52:22] conduct of monetary policy. What we're

[52:24] really interested in is what's happening

[52:27] right now. What we're less interested in

[52:29] is echoes of history. And you're hearing

[52:32] from my answer that some of the data

[52:34] that we receive that we're waiting on

[52:37] the first Friday after the month the

[52:39] payroll index or something else that

[52:41] might be an echo of history that's quite

[52:43] useful on its third revision. We need to

[52:46] take those error bounds down because we

[52:48] have to make hard decisions in real

[52:50] time. I'm really open-minded that there

[52:54] is a lot of new data sources that we can

[52:57] learn from the private sector, from

[52:59] reforms in the official sector, and new

[53:01] analytic techniques that are far more

[53:04] refined than asking a simple question

[53:06] about whether something was core or

[53:08] non-core.

[53:10] >> Edward,

[53:12] >> thanks. Welcome.

[53:13] >> Did I just hear long palunteer?

[53:15] So if you don't give a lot of ongoing

[53:19] forward guidance, won't the markets have

[53:21] more volatility and shouldn't Americans

[53:23] have more access into what you're

[53:24] thinking going forward?

[53:26] >> Um, so I think financial markets

[53:30] perform best when they react to incoming

[53:34] data. I think they the financial markets

[53:37] work less efficiently when they ask a

[53:40] question, how will the Federal Reserve

[53:42] react to that incoming information?

[53:45] Um, the more that markets are paying

[53:47] attention to what's happening in the

[53:50] real economy, deciding what's good data

[53:53] and what's less good data, the more

[53:55] financial markets can price what they

[53:57] believe is the most likely and what are

[53:59] the tail risks. Financial market prices

[54:03] are probably the most important source

[54:05] of information to guide central bankers.

[54:09] But when all the financial markets are

[54:11] doing is reflecting back what we've

[54:13] said, then we're taking the most

[54:15] important source of information and

[54:16] we're being blind to it. I'd like us to

[54:19] create a system where those blinders

[54:21] come off, where markets are following

[54:23] data that they efficiently think is

[54:25] reliable and they'll be watching data.

[54:28] We'll be watching data. They'll come

[54:30] with better information through market

[54:32] prices to us. We can make more informed

[54:34] decisions. But ultimately the goal that

[54:36] I said at the outset, deliver on the

[54:38] price stability objective that Congress

[54:40] told us to do that we've got to get in

[54:42] the business of doing. Yeah. If I could

[54:44] take you in the meeting a little bit. Um

[54:46] so your first meeting the the board

[54:48] members seem fairly hawkish when you

[54:50] listen to in general when you listen to

[54:52] what they're saying. Was there any

[54:53] discussion of a rate cut going forward

[54:55] today?

[54:56] >> Um

[54:58] there was one proposal on the table.

[55:00] There was no discussion of any other

[55:02] proposals. Um the discussion on that

[55:05] proposal I would say was quite limited.

[55:08] The group was unanimous and unambiguous

[55:10] on it. Um it has been the practice of of

[55:14] this central bank and others to have a

[55:16] range of alternatives. Um today we had

[55:20] one I thought it furthered discussion

[55:23] deepened it uh and made it clear what we

[55:26] needed to do and how we needed to

[55:29] deliver. I wouldn't prejudge what

[55:31] happens in the future, but there was

[55:32] only one big subject for us. We took it

[55:35] on. We had a good family fight on it for

[55:37] a couple of days and we ended up, I

[55:39] think, in a better place.

[55:42] >> Claire,

[55:45] >> thanks a lot. Claire Jones, Financial

[55:47] Times. um you know coming to this blind

[55:50] reading this very nice short statement

[55:52] that I think we've all appreciated in

[55:54] the room um one might wonder why you

[55:58] didn't raise rates today considering

[56:01] what you're saying here um about the the

[56:04] risks to

[56:06] your mandate

[56:07] >> waiting for the task force woman

[56:09] >> I guess why not and what would you need

[56:11] to see in order to get to that place um

[56:15] and secondly on your task force

[56:17] divorces. Are there any best practices

[56:19] at other central banks that you'd

[56:21] consider looking at? Thank you.

[56:23] >> Yeah, I'm glad they're in the practice

[56:25] of giving you two questions because my

[56:26] answer to your first question was going

[56:27] to be very curt. I've got nothing more

[56:29] to say than the statement itself. And to

[56:32] the point of the question I got before,

[56:34] market reactions to what we say

[56:36] unfiltered, I think is more helpful than

[56:39] having delivered a statement at me than

[56:41] improvising further upon it. Best

[56:43] practices of task forces. Um, this is a

[56:46] subject I've thought some about. I've

[56:47] been on a task force or two in my life.

[56:50] Um, best practice, find the best minds.

[56:54] Um, ensure that the task forces have a

[56:58] range of people both by backgrounds and

[57:01] predispositions

[57:02] so they too can have a bit of a family

[57:04] fight. Um, make sure when you establish

[57:08] a task force that the group that's going

[57:10] to be the recipient of the information

[57:12] feels as they've got some equities in

[57:13] it, too. That's why we're looking for

[57:16] haven't done the final roll call some of

[57:19] the most significant talent we have in

[57:20] the building and across the reserve

[57:22] banks on each of these and in some sense

[57:24] secunding them to this group for a

[57:26] period of some number of months um so

[57:30] that the leaders of the task force know

[57:32] what the most uh analytical central bank

[57:37] in the world thinks about that they can

[57:39] reflect on it and a final best practice

[57:41] we're not outsourcing decisions to

[57:43] anybody um uh administrations past and

[57:47] present, reserve banks have chosen a

[57:49] group of 19 people around the table.

[57:51] These will be our decisions. We can

[57:53] agree to some of the recommendations,

[57:55] disagree with others, have a good family

[57:57] fight about it, but what comes from them

[58:00] will, I hope and believe, make the

[58:02] discussion we have internally better,

[58:04] stronger,

[58:05] um more of a dialectic so that we can

[58:08] finally deliver.

[58:09] >> This guy sounds like a politician. I

[58:11] mean, you know, some of the stuff he's

[58:12] saying I'm on board with. I don't know,

[58:14] more real-time data. We got AI stuff,

[58:16] but man, he sounds like a politician.

[58:18] >> More tightening is needed. Would that be

[58:20] your read on what the 2-year yield is

[58:22] saying as well?

[58:23] >> We were in such a good place. This is

[58:25] why we don't do third questions, I

[58:26] presume. I'm not going to offer any

[58:28] commentary on market reaction over the

[58:31] last uh 30 or 60 minutes. Um, what we've

[58:34] given markets is a new chapter for the

[58:37] central bank, some fresh thinking. What

[58:40] we've given markets and households and

[58:43] businesses, I think, is a commitment to

[58:46] ask ourselves hard questions such that

[58:49] we can deliver on the promises that

[58:51] we've made before. Um, this is a lot of

[58:55] change for financial markets to digest.

[58:58] I wouldn't be particularly intrigued by

[59:01] how they react in the first several

[59:03] minutes or even first several days. What

[59:05] I think is most important is that

[59:07] financial markets and at least as

[59:09] important households and businesses know

[59:12] that this central bank will deliver on

[59:14] price stability.

[59:16] >> Brian,

[59:18] >> hi there chairman worship. Brian Chung

[59:20] with NBC News. Thank you for taking our

[59:21] questions. So when you say that we've

[59:23] dropped forward guidance for the lay

[59:24] person, that might sound like the Fed's

[59:26] going to say less or offer less insight

[59:28] into where their borrowing costs might

[59:30] go. So for the person that maybe you

[59:32] might run into at the grocery store

[59:34] where the price tags are rising at a

[59:36] faster pace than their wages at the

[59:37] moment, how would you explain it to

[59:39] them? I don't know if task force might

[59:40] be the answer there, but how would you

[59:42] kind of communicate this era, this

[59:44] chapter of the Fed?

[59:45] >> If I told somebody in the milk aisle

[59:48] that I had a task force for that, I

[59:49] think that would be doing a very poor

[59:51] job. So I appreciate it. Um, if I saw

[59:54] somebody in the grocery store, what I

[59:56] would say to them is that we cannot have

[59:59] a very significant effect on particular

[1:00:02] prices. The price of oil in the markets

[1:00:05] today or even the the the price of a

[1:00:07] dozen eggs um that does not have first

[1:00:10] order consequences to what we're doing.

[1:00:12] But we do have a really important job

[1:00:14] there and it's to make sure that those

[1:00:16] changes in oil or beef or eggs or milk

[1:00:20] don't broaden in the economy. Don't have

[1:00:22] second and third order effects. That's

[1:00:24] our job. That's our commitment. That's

[1:00:26] our capability and we're going to

[1:00:28] deliver on it. And then is the Fed's

[1:00:30] relationship with the uh Treasury also

[1:00:33] under review? There was the normal uh

[1:00:34] breakfast meetings with the Treasury

[1:00:36] Secretary. Is that something you intend

[1:00:38] to continue doing? And have you had

[1:00:39] conversations with the president since

[1:00:41] you're swearing it? So on the president,

[1:00:43] I I don't have anything for you. Um with

[1:00:46] respect to the Treasury Secretary, he

[1:00:48] has been posting pictures of our

[1:00:49] breakfast. So I don't think I can I

[1:00:51] don't think I can and deny that. The

[1:00:53] long tradition at the central bank is

[1:00:55] that the Fed chairman and the Treasury

[1:00:57] Secretary meet weekly. Uh I think we've

[1:00:59] pulled off three of those so far. I

[1:01:01] believe he's overseas this week, so this

[1:01:03] will be the exception to the rule. Uh I

[1:01:06] think they're very useful discussions.

[1:01:08] um the central bank's

[1:01:11] uh objectives and our roles and

[1:01:13] responsibilities are quite delineated

[1:01:15] from the fiscal authorities and in my

[1:01:18] view monetary policy is independent in

[1:01:21] the conduct of what we do but that

[1:01:23] doesn't mean we're not interested in

[1:01:24] what's happening with the fiscal

[1:01:26] authorities the way I think about it is

[1:01:28] this central bank needs to have a wide

[1:01:31] lens but a narrow remmit we need to be

[1:01:34] quite interested what's happening in the

[1:01:36] world um I won't be breaking any news

[1:01:39] here to suggest I'm quite interested

[1:01:41] what's happening in the Middle East.

[1:01:43] That does have some some effect on our

[1:01:45] day job. It doesn't mean it's our

[1:01:48] responsibility, but I think we're going

[1:01:49] to keep a wide lens and my meetings with

[1:01:52] Secretary Besson to this point have

[1:01:53] helped widen that aperture. So, we're

[1:01:56] aware of things that could affect our

[1:01:58] day job even if it isn't.

[1:02:01] >> Steve

[1:02:03] >> Steve Leeman, CNBC. Mr. Chair, thank

[1:02:05] you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for taking

[1:02:06] my question. Um, you had said in the um

[1:02:10] before uh you became chairman that you

[1:02:14] thought productivity was a reason why

[1:02:16] the Federal Reserve could lower interest

[1:02:18] rates. Do you still believe that to be

[1:02:20] the case?

[1:02:22] >> So the committee had a discussion of

[1:02:25] productivity today. AI came up. The way

[1:02:29] I thought about it before and socialized

[1:02:32] with the group is that artificial

[1:02:35] intelligence, the latest generation of

[1:02:37] general purpose technology,

[1:02:40] is perhaps as important a change in the

[1:02:44] economy and business and households that

[1:02:45] we've had in my adult lifetime. It is

[1:02:48] filled with both a huge opportunity and

[1:02:51] with risks. I take both of those very

[1:02:54] seriously. Um, you may have heard me say

[1:02:57] before that AI is shorthand perhaps for

[1:03:01] American ingenuity. That doesn't mean

[1:03:04] that it's going to be easy. That

[1:03:05] certainly doesn't mean it's not going to

[1:03:06] be disruptive. But over the long term,

[1:03:10] my conviction, and I heard quite a bit

[1:03:12] of support for this around the committee

[1:03:14] today, is the United States is a winner

[1:03:17] as we go down this. The United States is

[1:03:19] ultimately going to be better off in

[1:03:21] that. Now to bring that back to the

[1:03:23] conduct of policy, timing, scale,

[1:03:27] speed, implications for output and

[1:03:30] employment. Um it's one of the things we

[1:03:33] have a task force to do.

[1:03:35] >> If you don't mind a followup from the

[1:03:36] other side, which is that when you look

[1:03:38] at the strong job growth that's out

[1:03:40] there, the elevated inflation, GDP seems

[1:03:42] to be going pretty good and the stock

[1:03:44] market seems to be soaring. Do you look

[1:03:47] around this economy and see the funds

[1:03:49] rate being restrictive?

[1:03:51] So um that's your second question. I'm

[1:03:54] going to give the same answer that I

[1:03:55] gave before. I'd say as I think about

[1:03:57] the conduct of policy, what matters is

[1:04:00] what's the effect of policy. Not what do

[1:04:02] we say, but what happens? And the best

[1:04:04] way I can describe is it's uneven. I do

[1:04:06] see some restrictiveness in things like

[1:04:08] housing. It's hard to use those same

[1:04:10] words uh anywhere else. I'll just make

[1:04:13] one other point. Um you talked about uh

[1:04:16] one of our dual mandates in the

[1:04:19] employment side.

[1:04:20] I don't believe that we have a cruel

[1:04:23] choice. I don't share the view that was

[1:04:26] expressed a few generations ago that

[1:04:29] Federal Reserve chairman show up at a

[1:04:31] podium like this and say you got to

[1:04:33] choose and uh you're going to have to

[1:04:36] decide whether you're willing to

[1:04:38] tolerate higher inflation to put more

[1:04:41] people at work. I don't believe in that.

[1:04:44] What I believe is if we do our job, we

[1:04:47] can make strong growth,

[1:04:50] low prices, and strong employment

[1:04:53] mutually compatible. And so what you

[1:04:56] heard from the committee today is we've

[1:04:58] got some work to do on the price

[1:04:59] stability front.

[1:05:01] >> Nick,

[1:05:04] >> thank you. Nick Timos with Wall Street

[1:05:06] Journal. There it is.

[1:05:06] >> Chairman Worsh, you've said repeatedly

[1:05:08] credibility uh is earned by delivering.

[1:05:11] If credibility requires delivering, the

[1:05:14] move would be to tighten or at least to

[1:05:16] threaten to. Now, you didn't do that

[1:05:18] today. Why not?

[1:05:19] >> Um,

[1:05:21] that judgment you expressed was not

[1:05:23] expressed by any of the 19 people around

[1:05:25] the table. Um, we'll be meeting in 6

[1:05:28] weeks. We'll take up the issue again.

[1:05:30] >> And, and if I could ask about AI, the

[1:05:32] buildout is generating enormous demand

[1:05:34] right now. Capex, data centers, power.

[1:05:37] Uh, the productivity payoff may be

[1:05:39] further out. So in your judgment today,

[1:05:41] is AI adding more to demand or to

[1:05:43] supply?

[1:05:44] >> It's a good question. Um,

[1:05:48] at the central bank in an economics

[1:05:50] profession, what we spend most of our

[1:05:53] time doing is counting demand. It's

[1:05:55] easier. We can see it. We can count it.

[1:05:58] We can check it. We can revise it. Um,

[1:06:01] what we do though is we infer supply.

[1:06:04] You'll notice in the second paragraph of

[1:06:08] what one of your colleagues described as

[1:06:09] a very short statement, we have a

[1:06:12] sentence on the demand side and a

[1:06:15] sentence about the same length on the

[1:06:17] supply side. They're both important.

[1:06:20] Just because we can count one better

[1:06:21] than the other doesn't mean we're going

[1:06:23] to favor one more than the other. With

[1:06:25] respect to AI and the growth of data

[1:06:28] centers and infrastructure around it,

[1:06:30] we're counting the demand side and it is

[1:06:32] no doubt showing up in GDP figures.

[1:06:36] We can be less certain when we infer the

[1:06:39] timing and extent of the growth in the

[1:06:41] supply side. It may well be an intuition

[1:06:44] the supply side is going to expand, but

[1:06:46] it'll take longer. I just describe it

[1:06:48] this way. There's a race between supply

[1:06:50] and demand. Milton Freriedman says that

[1:06:53] the only thing we know about economics

[1:06:54] is that there's a supply line and a

[1:06:56] demand line they ultimately cross. When

[1:06:58] they cross and what are the implications

[1:07:00] for policy, the good news for you is we

[1:07:02] have a task force for that.

[1:07:05] >> Andrew,

[1:07:08] >> uh thanks, Mr. Chairman. Um uh it

[1:07:11] sounded like uh on the task force on

[1:07:13] data that that you were looking at

[1:07:15] overhauling or completely overhauling

[1:07:17] the system of national accounts, the way

[1:07:18] the government minds the economy. Is

[1:07:20] that your ambition?

[1:07:23] >> Um, in a word, no. Uh, in a few words,

[1:07:27] uh, much of this data gathering happens

[1:07:29] in other government agencies to which we

[1:07:33] owe a tremendous amount of respect,

[1:07:35] tremendous amount of difference. But if

[1:07:37] in the course of this we come up with

[1:07:39] recommendations

[1:07:41] which Fed staff have already begun to

[1:07:43] develop about things that they could be

[1:07:46] doing to help inform us as policy

[1:07:48] makers. We're not going to hesitate.

[1:07:50] Again, I don't want to try to uh

[1:07:53] delineate the four corners of the

[1:07:55] research of the task force on data, but

[1:07:58] I do think there will be a review of

[1:08:00] official statistics and at least as

[1:08:02] important a view of bringing the best

[1:08:04] practices from the private sector and

[1:08:07] new analytical tools made possible by AI

[1:08:10] so we can forge these into a fabric that

[1:08:13] gives us better real-time information.

[1:08:15] And so, as I mentioned before, when

[1:08:17] we're making decisions, we're making

[1:08:19] decisions that we'd say are real

[1:08:21] contemporaneous data, not data that we

[1:08:24] call contemporaneous. That's really an

[1:08:26] echo of history.

[1:08:27] >> Child's here.

[1:08:28] >> Okay. Um, thanks. Uh, the other question

[1:08:30] I wanted to ask is uh related to the the

[1:08:32] building renovations. Are you

[1:08:34] considering any changes to the

[1:08:36] renovations, the projects um just in

[1:08:38] light of the fact that they became kind

[1:08:39] of a political football in the last

[1:08:41] year?

[1:08:42] >> I heard something about that. Um

[1:08:45] uh I don't think I'm breaking any news,

[1:08:47] but my view when you show up at a new

[1:08:50] institution, you should go meet with the

[1:08:52] inspector general just as a matter of

[1:08:54] good practice. Um it's a practice that I

[1:08:57] hope to continue. I've had one meeting

[1:08:59] with the inspector general and he told

[1:09:02] me what I believe the world knows, which

[1:09:04] he'll be coming out with a report on the

[1:09:07] building and the building projects at

[1:09:09] some point later this summer. Um, and

[1:09:12] uh, I'll be interested in reading the

[1:09:14] report. From my perspective, with a

[1:09:17] forward-looking glance, is there

[1:09:19] anything that we can be doing or should

[1:09:21] be doing from this moment until the

[1:09:23] completion of the project to do what we

[1:09:25] can to be good stewards of taxpayer

[1:09:27] money and to make sure that the we're

[1:09:30] delivering on the the promises that we

[1:09:32] made. Uh, some more work to do. You

[1:09:34] might not be surprised in the first few

[1:09:36] weeks. I've been somewhat preoccupied on

[1:09:38] other matters, but I promised it to to

[1:09:40] get to the full breath of the Fed's uh

[1:09:42] tasks in the weeks ahead.

[1:09:45] >> Victoria,

[1:09:48] >> hi Victoria Guido with Politico. Um, so

[1:09:51] I know that you did not submit a

[1:09:53] forecast, but you are the person who is

[1:09:55] authorized to speak on behalf of the

[1:09:57] FOMC. So I'm wondering if you could tell

[1:09:58] us in the SCP um the increase in the

[1:10:01] expectations for inflation. Is that all

[1:10:05] because of the Iran war? What was the

[1:10:08] discussion around what the expectations

[1:10:10] for inflation being higher and and also

[1:10:12] potentially growth being slower? So um

[1:10:17] my read of what I heard in the room

[1:10:21] reflected I must admit in the SCPs is

[1:10:24] half of my colleagues thought the policy

[1:10:27] rate given all those developments should

[1:10:29] be at this level or lower between now

[1:10:31] and your end and the other half thought

[1:10:33] higher. Um that 19th voter was me and I

[1:10:36] didn't submit one. Um there's a range of

[1:10:39] views on the questions of of uh first

[1:10:43] and second round effects. Uh no

[1:10:46] resolution or conviction, but we'll be

[1:10:50] meeting again in 6 weeks. I think we're

[1:10:52] going to know more then and I think that

[1:10:55] my colleagues are very attentive to

[1:10:58] incoming developments between now and

[1:11:00] then.

[1:11:01] >> And can I just quick follow up on the

[1:11:03] SCP? You said that you're still

[1:11:04] encouraging your your your fellow

[1:11:07] committee members to submit forecasts

[1:11:08] even if you're not doing it. So what do

[1:11:10] you think is the benefit of them doing

[1:11:11] it even if you don't?

[1:11:13] >> Uh that's the commitment that the FOMC

[1:11:15] made and it's a commitment that I hope

[1:11:18] we live up to. Commitment we made was to

[1:11:21] deliver price stability. I expect us to

[1:11:23] live up to it by the time we get to the

[1:11:26] end of this year. As I mentioned, I

[1:11:29] wouldn't be surprised if there was a new

[1:11:32] communications framework. There were

[1:11:33] some changes. The SCP, that's a

[1:11:36] committee discussion, a robust

[1:11:38] discussion. I think we'll have it. I

[1:11:40] believe we're going to come to a better

[1:11:42] mix of communications to

[1:11:45] um deliver on what we've promised, but I

[1:11:48] wouldn't want to prejudge what those

[1:11:50] are. But between now and then, I would

[1:11:52] continue to expect colleagues to submit

[1:11:53] their SEPs. Um some of them uh I think

[1:11:59] believe that the practice is currently

[1:12:00] structured is okay but I heard a lot of

[1:12:03] interest in real reform generally about

[1:12:05] all these topics. Uh you didn't ask it

[1:12:08] but I'll answer. It was a it was a

[1:12:10] pretty gracious couple of days and it's

[1:12:12] been a pretty

[1:12:14] uh warm few weeks. The institution wants

[1:12:18] to figure out how we can do better. the

[1:12:21] institutions going back to first

[1:12:23] principles and I'm encouraged that what

[1:12:25] we've done in the statement what we're

[1:12:27] thinking about doing with respect to the

[1:12:28] SCP that instinct towards a new chapter

[1:12:32] is a real one and by the end of the year

[1:12:34] I hope we can put some points on the

[1:12:36] board both in form and in substance of

[1:12:39] delivering

[1:12:41] >> going to end up for the last question

[1:12:43] >> last question you Mr. chairman current

[1:12:46] Bloomberg News. Could you guide us

[1:12:48] through please some of the principles

[1:12:50] that guide your own reaction function

[1:12:52] and tell us a little bit about kind of

[1:12:54] conditions that you think when the Fed

[1:12:56] should respond?

[1:12:58] >> Um it's going to be a very

[1:13:00] unsatisfactory answer to the final

[1:13:02] question.

[1:13:04] The Federal Reserve

[1:13:07] uh has a lot of responsibilities not

[1:13:09] just in monetary policy but in

[1:13:11] supervision and regulation, consumer

[1:13:13] affairs and payments.

[1:13:15] My own view is our credibility comes

[1:13:18] from delivering on what we're saying

[1:13:20] we're going to do across everything we

[1:13:22] do. Um I've devoted more time in my

[1:13:26] first three weeks to monetary policy

[1:13:28] than all those things. But the more we

[1:13:30] deliver on our promises as good

[1:13:32] supervisors and good regulators, the

[1:13:34] more benefit we get, the more

[1:13:35] credibility enhancement we have in

[1:13:37] monetary policy. When we deliver on our

[1:13:41] price stability objectives, which we

[1:13:43] will, uh, the American people will feel

[1:13:46] as though the hardships that they've

[1:13:48] been living through in part because of

[1:13:50] inflation the last 5 years are in the

[1:13:51] rearview mirror and that credibility

[1:13:54] will have dividends uh, dividends across

[1:13:56] what we do. and the institution will

[1:13:58] come to press conferences like this

[1:14:00] always with an impetus to reform always

[1:14:02] with an impetus to to do better but

[1:14:05] we're going to put some points on the

[1:14:06] board and Mr. had strong labor data in

[1:14:09] recent months. How would you sum up the

[1:14:11] labor data labor market right now? Do

[1:14:13] you see it as stable as a potentially a

[1:14:15] source of inflation? Thank you.

[1:14:16] >> Yeah. So, so the committee

[1:14:20] uh if I were to try to capture how the

[1:14:22] committee thought about it, the

[1:14:23] committee thought that the labor markets

[1:14:25] were stable. There were some people

[1:14:28] around the committee who thought that it

[1:14:30] was trending better than that.

[1:14:33] Uh trends matter more than data points.

[1:14:37] uh what's happening over three or six

[1:14:39] months matters more than any one data

[1:14:41] point any one data release and I'd say

[1:14:44] the jobs data has been moving in a good

[1:14:46] direction. If I heard one other thing

[1:14:49] around that subject over the course of

[1:14:51] the last couple of days what I heard was

[1:14:55] that strong productivityled growth is

[1:15:00] not something that we fear but something

[1:15:01] we embrace. Thank you all very much. M

[1:15:05] five 3 2

[1:15:09] >> Okay. Well, there you have it. We have a

[1:15:12] new fed chair. And boy oh boy, he uh

[1:15:16] he's pretty dry,

[1:15:19] man. JP was fun. This guy, I don't know.

[1:15:24] All right, let's do a review of what the

[1:15:25] heck is uh going on here. Uh dang, Robin

[1:15:28] Hood's up 12 and a half% right now.

[1:15:30] That's crazy. That was uh one of our

[1:15:32] calls this morning in the alpha report.

[1:15:34] Uh thank you everybody who's a member

[1:15:35] over there at mekevin.com. But for now,

[1:15:37] let's focus on what we just got. Uh so

[1:15:41] let's get into it. Uh here we go.

[1:15:45] Take a sip of this coffee, too.

[1:15:50] Well, we just got a new Jerome Powell

[1:15:52] dude. Except this guy is dry like

[1:15:55] sandpaper. He sounds like a politician.

[1:15:58] We're probably stuck with the guy for

[1:16:00] two four-year terms. So, eight years.

[1:16:03] Eight years of this. And boy, every

[1:16:06] freaking question that he gets as it's

[1:16:08] almost like he's trying to train the

[1:16:10] media to not ask him. His responses are

[1:16:13] either I don't give forward guidance.

[1:16:16] Ask the task force. Actually, you can.

[1:16:19] The task force will let you know. He's

[1:16:22] This is going to be weird, but let me

[1:16:24] just start with what I think he's doing.

[1:16:27] and then we'll get into some more of

[1:16:29] what he said because there's a lot of

[1:16:32] reading between the lines you have to do

[1:16:33] with this guy. So, let me give you the

[1:16:35] bottom line first because I respect your

[1:16:37] time. Bottom line, bullish.

[1:16:41] Why? Cuz this guy is probably going to

[1:16:45] change which measure of inflation they

[1:16:49] use. I think they're going to dump PCE

[1:16:53] inflation and I think they'll end up

[1:16:55] using something like the Dallas Fed

[1:16:58] trimmed mean inflation, which if you

[1:17:00] look at this, you could actually see

[1:17:02] right now it's sitting at 2.55%.

[1:17:04] It's been falling pretty stably. I mean,

[1:17:08] yes, we've got ups and downs like the

[1:17:09] stock market, but the trend is clearly

[1:17:11] down here. And if you look at the actual

[1:17:13] trim mean chart and you get into some of

[1:17:15] the details of it here, the one-mon

[1:17:17] level is at that 2.55 level. six-month

[1:17:20] level at 2.3. So, you're actually almost

[1:17:22] there at 2%. And if you come in and your

[1:17:25] task force says, you know, we should be

[1:17:27] using a different measure of inflation.

[1:17:29] And then you swap to something like trim

[1:17:31] mean now you can magically say, hey,

[1:17:35] look at this. We have officially reached

[1:17:38] 2% inflation. Guess what, boys and

[1:17:41] girls? It's time for rate cuts. That's

[1:17:44] my take with what he's doing with rates.

[1:17:48] Now he indicates that he's essentially

[1:17:51] setting up five different task forces.

[1:17:53] One on communications, one on the

[1:17:55] balance sheet, one on data sources, one

[1:17:57] on productivity and jobs, and one on

[1:17:59] inflation. I think the inflation task

[1:18:01] force will end up measuring inflation in

[1:18:03] a different way. That'll make his job

[1:18:05] easier because the productivity and jobs

[1:18:08] one is going to take into account quote

[1:18:10] implications from AI. That's a fancy way

[1:18:13] of saying exactly what he's been

[1:18:15] forecasting that he thinks artificial

[1:18:17] intelligence is deflationary, increases

[1:18:20] labor force productivity, and therefore

[1:18:22] we could lower rates while facing

[1:18:24] disinflation from AI, and we don't

[1:18:27] actually have to worry about inflation.

[1:18:28] Now, a lot of people are going to be

[1:18:29] really pissed about that because he

[1:18:31] comes out and he's literally like, I'm

[1:18:33] not really worried about the price of

[1:18:34] eggs or price of beef. I'm worried about

[1:18:36] broader measures of inflation and

[1:18:39] specifically utilizing real time data.

[1:18:42] Now, that's something else. I mean, I

[1:18:44] basically heard him say, "Long

[1:18:46] Palunteer, boys and girls." And I'll

[1:18:48] tell you, I just watched the first of

[1:18:49] the Lord of the Rings trilogy and I

[1:18:52] learned what a palunteer was that all

[1:18:54] steaming bald at communicating crystal

[1:18:56] ball. It's not really crystal, it's more

[1:18:58] clear, but anyway, kind of cool. I

[1:19:02] actually agree with this. Basically,

[1:19:04] Kevin Worsh came out and said, "Look,

[1:19:06] why are we worried about jobs data that

[1:19:09] comes out at the beginning of every

[1:19:10] month, but it's not actually useful to

[1:19:12] us until the third revision?" So,

[1:19:14] basically, you know, 3 months later, why

[1:19:17] don't we actually use real time data and

[1:19:20] then incorporate AI with that data? And

[1:19:23] so AI and other real-time sources of

[1:19:26] data can actually tell us what's

[1:19:27] happening in the economy in real time

[1:19:30] rather than relying on the these old

[1:19:32] reports that are subject to a lot of

[1:19:34] revisions and are subject to really low

[1:19:36] response rates. He's not wrong about

[1:19:39] this. Postcoid the response rates

[1:19:41] plummeted for the job survey for the

[1:19:43] jobs the uh opening and labor turnover

[1:19:46] survey. All of these have gotten reamed

[1:19:48] in response rates and so the surveys

[1:19:50] aren't as useful as they used to be. A

[1:19:53] lot of the surveys are getting filled in

[1:19:55] sort of backfilled in with estimates or

[1:19:57] assumptions, seasonal adjustments. So

[1:20:01] he's not wrong. I actually kind of

[1:20:03] support the idea of using more updated

[1:20:06] me like tools to determine what's going

[1:20:08] on with the economy. For example, you

[1:20:11] know, that could be based on earnings.

[1:20:12] It could be based on guidance from CEOs.

[1:20:14] It could be based on actual hiring. Like

[1:20:17] even the Jolt survey includes a lot of

[1:20:21] job openings that aren't actually really

[1:20:23] open anymore. They're just like

[1:20:24] forgotten listings on online hiring

[1:20:26] websites when you could probably use AI

[1:20:29] to measure the delta, right? change of

[1:20:32] job openings month-to-month much faster

[1:20:34] by analyzing big data probably using

[1:20:37] software like Palanteer frankly uh and

[1:20:40] uh and and analyzing month-to-month

[1:20:42] changes as opposed to these aggregates

[1:20:45] that could be full of old data. So, I

[1:20:48] don't know that I'm making assumptions

[1:20:51] on some of those components, but I'm

[1:20:53] building in what he said, which was we

[1:20:55] want better sources of data from the

[1:20:57] private market. We want uh information

[1:21:00] that is real- time information. We want

[1:21:02] to use artificial intelligence. We don't

[1:21:04] want to give forward guidance and then

[1:21:05] the economy freaks out to what we're

[1:21:07] saying. In fairness here, I thought that

[1:21:10] Kevin Walsh was going to uh talk down

[1:21:13] the risk of rate hikes. The most he

[1:21:16] really said about rate hikes was eh half

[1:21:19] the people are telling me they want rate

[1:21:20] hikes, half say they don't want rate

[1:21:22] hikes. Okay, fine. which let's look at

[1:21:25] what's actually happening in the bond

[1:21:26] market and what's happening with the

[1:21:28] odds of rate hikes and you'll kind of

[1:21:30] see why the market is reacting the way

[1:21:31] it is. Just a quick note this morning we

[1:21:35] shouted out Robin Hood as potentially

[1:21:37] being a part of the next sector to get a

[1:21:40] lot of momentum and since our shout out

[1:21:43] the stock is up 12 freaking%. We shouted

[1:21:46] this out at $96. It's trading at $108

[1:21:49] right now. Now, we've done some more

[1:21:50] fundamental analysis on it as well. Uh

[1:21:52] over in the Meet Kevin app for course

[1:21:54] members, major Meet Kevin stock AI

[1:21:57] update came out uh last week for course

[1:21:59] members. You could get a free sample as

[1:22:01] well. Uh we're coming out with the alpha

[1:22:03] wire service within the next 24 hours

[1:22:05] for course members. And so, of course,

[1:22:07] we'll be raising the price again. But

[1:22:09] for now, you could use coupon code pope.

[1:22:11] Uh that's mostly because the Pope gave

[1:22:13] me a nod while I was wearing the

[1:22:14] Reinvest shirt in Barcelona a few days

[1:22:17] ago. You could see that on X. But

[1:22:19] anyway, join and get all nine courses,

[1:22:20] every trade alert, every private live

[1:22:22] stream, every alpha report, allin-one

[1:22:24] membership over at meetke.com. Okay, for

[1:22:26] now though, uh in addition to awesome

[1:22:29] shoutouts, let's focus on what's not so

[1:22:32] awesome, and that is that we only have a

[1:22:34] 20% chance right now of actually staying

[1:22:37] stable by the end of the year on the CME

[1:22:40] futures market. This is bad. We've

[1:22:42] literally gone from about a 55% chance

[1:22:45] of a rate hike by the end of the year to

[1:22:47] an 80% chance of a rate hike by the end

[1:22:49] of the year. This is why markets are

[1:22:51] pissed off. In my opinion, they are

[1:22:54] wrong. They are absolutely wrong. And

[1:22:56] I'll show you why in just a moment. By

[1:22:58] July 28th, markets are pricing in only a

[1:23:02] 17% chance that we will be stable or

[1:23:04] lower, which is, you know, an 83% chance

[1:23:07] that we're going to get a hike or

[1:23:09] multiple rate hikes by July 27th uh of

[1:23:13] 2027 or sorry, July 28th of 2027. This

[1:23:17] is wrong in my opinion. But looking at

[1:23:19] the bond market, you could actually see

[1:23:21] the bond market is really plummeting the

[1:23:25] odds of a shock from policy. We can see

[1:23:28] the 102 yield curve has dumped today

[1:23:31] about nine basis points, which is a

[1:23:33] massive plummet. The chart has

[1:23:35] absolutely crashed on this, which is

[1:23:37] actually bullish for the economy. Now,

[1:23:41] why is this happening? It's happening

[1:23:43] because the 2-year yield is rising

[1:23:46] slightly and the 10-year yield is rising

[1:23:49] more. You can see the 2-year right now

[1:23:51] is sitting up about 14 bips. And if I

[1:23:55] jump over to the 10year, I want to say

[1:23:57] it's up somewhere around uh 34. Let's go

[1:24:00] here. Come on. Come on. Come on. There

[1:24:02] it is. Oh, 4.7 or 0.047 I should say. So

[1:24:07] 4.7 bips versus here about actually wow

[1:24:10] 14. No, you've actually come up quite a

[1:24:12] lot on the 2-year. So, that's actually

[1:24:14] very interesting. This is this is the

[1:24:15] market responding heavily to this idea

[1:24:19] that uh hey, all right, it sounds like

[1:24:22] we're going to get hikes. It's the same

[1:24:23] thing you see over here on the CME watch

[1:24:25] group. But that is not what the summary

[1:24:28] of economic projections is actually

[1:24:30] forecasting. This is why I think the

[1:24:32] market is wrong to assume we're going to

[1:24:33] get rate hikes this year. First of all,

[1:24:35] I think Kevin Worsh is going to change

[1:24:37] the definition of inflation and

[1:24:39] therefore we won't need rate hikes

[1:24:41] because we'll magically be at 2%. I

[1:24:44] think that's coming. But even beyond

[1:24:46] that assumption, look at the summary of

[1:24:48] economic projections. With 50% of the

[1:24:51] staff not pricing at a rate hike, the

[1:24:54] average of Fed staffers still sees

[1:24:57] inflation going from 3.3 to 3.4 all the

[1:25:00] way down to 2.3 to 2.4. That is a 1%

[1:25:04] decline as we roll over from tariffs,

[1:25:06] Iran, and AI supply shortages, a lapping

[1:25:08] of annual inflation. There's a 1%

[1:25:10] decline is being priced in without a

[1:25:13] guaranteed rate hike here. So, I'm I'm

[1:25:15] sort of surprised that the market is

[1:25:17] believing that, you know, Kevin Worsh

[1:25:19] just implied there's going to be a rate

[1:25:20] hike. I don't see that at all. In fact,

[1:25:22] I could see here you've got one

[1:25:24] knucklehead who thinks rates should be

[1:25:25] at 4.4%.

[1:25:27] Uh, five think there should be two

[1:25:29] hikes, one think there should be one

[1:25:31] hike. This is for 2026. But the vast,

[1:25:34] you know, the bulk of people right here

[1:25:35] are at a hold. And I think the bias is

[1:25:38] going to be towards holding and waiting

[1:25:40] because you don't want to repeat what

[1:25:41] happened in the 1970s. In the 1970s, we

[1:25:45] saw a lot of up and down adjustments

[1:25:46] that actually contributed to a lot of a

[1:25:49] lack of faith or confidence in the

[1:25:51] Federal Reserve and ended up getting us

[1:25:53] Paul Vulkar to sort of put the pants

[1:25:55] back on at the Fed. No sign here that

[1:25:57] the unemployment rate has any issues. In

[1:26:00] fact, Kevin Worsh himself mentioned that

[1:26:01] he is hearing a lot about how stable the

[1:26:04] unemployment market or the employment

[1:26:06] market, the jobs market is right now.

[1:26:08] Uh, it also should not have been a

[1:26:09] surprise that the summary of economic

[1:26:11] projections implied a rate hike over

[1:26:13] here. The market did turn down as soon

[1:26:16] as we got this. That shouldn't have been

[1:26:17] a surprise. We've already been pricing

[1:26:19] in a rate hike all year long. So, I was

[1:26:22] surprised the market did go down after

[1:26:24] this because we've already known the

[1:26:26] bond market was pricing in one hike rate

[1:26:27] hike for 2026. In fact, at one point it

[1:26:30] was pricing in a rate hike for 2026 and

[1:26:32] a rate hike for 2027. Bond market

[1:26:34] actually still is. But the summary of

[1:26:36] economic projections is pricing in a

[1:26:38] rate hike for 2026 and a rate cut for

[1:26:41] 2027.

[1:26:43] It's up 25 basis points this year and

[1:26:45] down 25 basis points this year. Now,

[1:26:47] somebody did or next year. Uh, somebody

[1:26:49] did hawk this meeting a lot. Somebody

[1:26:52] actually thinks the rate should be up

[1:26:54] almost one full percent. But that's only

[1:26:57] one person at the Fed. That's that one

[1:26:59] dot, that one knucklehead who's really

[1:27:01] hawkish right now. And it's not Kevin

[1:27:03] Worsh because Kevin Worsh didn't fill

[1:27:05] out any projections at all. He abstained

[1:27:07] from filling out anything. Uh their

[1:27:10] statement was also substantially

[1:27:12] shorter. They've removed essentially all

[1:27:13] forms of forward guidance. Uh and I hate

[1:27:17] to say it, but the market's revisiting

[1:27:18] the 725 support line. We bounced off of

[1:27:21] it earlier when we got the statement. We

[1:27:24] are falling into the close which

[1:27:25] unfortunately does mean that triple

[1:27:26] leveraged funds are likely to come out

[1:27:28] and also sell into the close as SpaceX

[1:27:31] is likely to have its first red day

[1:27:32] here. I am bearish uh SpaceX long-term

[1:27:35] even though I hold SpaceX. Uh once we

[1:27:38] get to July and we start getting

[1:27:39] lockups, I think a lot of people are

[1:27:41] going to be running for the exit on it

[1:27:42] and I think there'll be better chances

[1:27:43] and better opportunities to buy SpaceX.

[1:27:45] Uh we are looking for new sectoral

[1:27:47] leadership could end up continuing to be

[1:27:49] finance especially after that boost we

[1:27:51] saw at Robin Hood today. SoFi might be

[1:27:53] another beneficiary of that, especially

[1:27:55] with their home lending sector really

[1:27:57] exploding. But really long term here, so

[1:28:00] ignoring kind of shorter term moves in

[1:28:01] the market. Long-term, Kevin Walsh

[1:28:04] really came out here and suggested we're

[1:28:06] going to have a lot of changes. That if

[1:28:09] you look at the housing market, Federal

[1:28:10] Reserve policy is restrictive. If you

[1:28:12] look at the stock market, it's not. He

[1:28:14] thinks that inflation is a choice, but

[1:28:16] they don't have major urgency right now.

[1:28:19] that they have the luxury of time right

[1:28:21] now to sit down and sort of reanalyze

[1:28:23] how they want to put data together.

[1:28:25] Whether they're going to have press

[1:28:26] conferences or not depends on whether

[1:28:28] they have an announcement to make or

[1:28:30] some kind of press conference to give.

[1:28:32] He thinks that press conferences should

[1:28:33] really be reserved for when you have

[1:28:34] something useful to say. So, there is a

[1:28:36] potential future where we get fewer

[1:28:38] press conferences with Kevin Borch. We

[1:28:40] get a different inflation regime that

[1:28:43] suggests, oh, inflation's actually good.

[1:28:45] He's probably going to push rates down

[1:28:48] over his term. I actually expect we'll

[1:28:50] have lower rates than ever before by

[1:28:52] 2032. This is a mindset that I've had

[1:28:54] for the last four years. And I think

[1:28:56] that'll that'll be true. And I think

[1:28:57] he's going to use essentially more

[1:29:00] real-time data, potentially

[1:29:01] incorporating AI data to guide the Fed

[1:29:05] on where they should be with policy.

[1:29:07] Obviously, there's some risks with that.

[1:29:09] We've never had AIEL data controlling

[1:29:12] Fed policy or at least advising Fed

[1:29:14] policy. So, it's going to be interesting

[1:29:15] to see how all this plays out. But I

[1:29:17] think the bias here is hold until we

[1:29:21] get, you know, a new explanation for the

[1:29:24] economy and then probably cut. Today,

[1:29:27] though, markets are really pricing in a

[1:29:29] lot of rate hikes, right? I mean, this

[1:29:31] this is very aggressive. You've got uh

[1:29:35] probably two to even three, maybe even

[1:29:37] four rate hikes priced in over here

[1:29:39] going through the summer of 2027. And

[1:29:41] again, you go to the end of the year,

[1:29:42] you're pricing in one to two hikes with

[1:29:45] an equal chance, basically a one-/ird

[1:29:47] chance for each of them of a rate hike

[1:29:49] by the end of the year. I personally

[1:29:51] think this is totally wrong and it makes

[1:29:52] me bullish because I think money is made

[1:29:55] when people are not looking at certain

[1:29:57] stocks. I think in 2022 when I was

[1:30:01] loading up on Nvidia, which ended up

[1:30:02] being a 10x in my portfolio, made

[1:30:05] millions of dollars. I was really

[1:30:06] grateful for that. Everybody was making

[1:30:08] fun of me for buying chips then. It's

[1:30:10] kind of like, you know, today it's

[1:30:11] really unpopular to buy certain stocks

[1:30:14] that are printing money that are really

[1:30:16] cheap in their valuation and they're

[1:30:20] cheap at the same time as the market is

[1:30:22] pricing in rate hikes when I think we're

[1:30:24] actually more likely to get rate cuts.

[1:30:25] Now, we'll see. I could be wrong.

[1:30:27] Obviously, you know, that's what makes

[1:30:29] us human after all. But if you want to

[1:30:31] see exactly what I'm investing in,

[1:30:32] consider joining us over at mekevin.com.

[1:30:34] You could use that coupon code pope. Uh

[1:30:37] the reason again that pope is because uh

[1:30:39] we actually got that nod from the pope

[1:30:41] over here which I was really happy

[1:30:42] about. I was wearing the reinvest polo

[1:30:45] and uh yeah gotta say it's uh it's it's

[1:30:48] kind of cool. Uh was not expect people

[1:30:50] wait hours to see the pope and then we

[1:30:52] got the nod right there. How sick is

[1:30:54] that?

[1:30:56] So uh somebody told me it's it's um not

[1:31:00] blasphemous to say the pope likes you or

[1:31:02] gives you a nod. Only if you use God in

[1:31:04] that reference. So that that was good.

[1:31:07] Uh but anyway, that gives us a little

[1:31:08] bit of a uh breakdown of what's going on

[1:31:12] uh with uh Kevin Walsh. I I will say

[1:31:14] he's a little bit boring, a little bit

[1:31:16] of a politician. I uh expect a lot of

[1:31:19] changes to come from the Federal

[1:31:20] Reserve, but I think that they will bias

[1:31:22] down. And again, if you look at the

[1:31:24] summary of economic projections, you

[1:31:26] could even see that bias down on rates

[1:31:28] here. Uh and I think they're going to

[1:31:30] repel from that noisiness of, you know,

[1:31:33] oh, we're going to hike and then we're

[1:31:34] going to cut. I think that's a terrible

[1:31:36] idea. And in fact, I think one of the

[1:31:38] most powerful comments that I heard was

[1:31:41] Kevin Worsh was asked, hey, you know,

[1:31:43] was there like a consensus from the

[1:31:44] committee? And the consensus was that

[1:31:46] there is no consensus. He in fact called

[1:31:49] everybody pretty humble and uh, you

[1:31:51] know, pretty willing to listen to other

[1:31:53] commentary and potentially even change

[1:31:54] their minds. Uh, and so there was no

[1:31:57] overbearing push towards one direction

[1:31:59] or another, which is very consistent

[1:32:01] with my belief that we're likely to do

[1:32:03] nothing until we get a cut. The market

[1:32:06] is totally mispricing that in my

[1:32:08] opinion, which creates a long-term

[1:32:10] buying opportunity. So, yes, that makes

[1:32:12] me bullish. Probably sitting somewhere

[1:32:14] around an 8.3 on the bare bull scale

[1:32:16] right now, which, you know, was pretty

[1:32:19] elevated. Um, certainly not desiring

[1:32:22] rushing into debt. I'm not a big fan of

[1:32:24] debt uh because I do think that uh there

[1:32:27] you know the next time we have a

[1:32:28] recession whenever that comes it will be

[1:32:30] one of the worst and Kevin Worsh will

[1:32:33] actually contribute it contribute to it

[1:32:35] being bad. He'll cut rates to zero but

[1:32:37] he won't print money like the other guys

[1:32:39] like a Paul Vulkar or Janet Yellen or

[1:32:41] Jerome Powell. He won't print money like

[1:32:42] them or at least he'll try to resist

[1:32:43] from that. I think that his task force

[1:32:46] will also advise just that which uh is

[1:32:48] is unfortunately bearish for a

[1:32:51] recessionary period which makes me very

[1:32:53] uninterested in debt. But with that

[1:32:56] said, uh overall I'm optimistic here. I

[1:32:59] I I hate to say that I like what I heard

[1:33:02] because I'm tired of hearing task force.

[1:33:05] I am excited though about hearing, hey,

[1:33:07] we're going to update like how we

[1:33:09] collect data and how we analyze data.

[1:33:12] Honestly, it's long been needed. So,

[1:33:14] we'll see what they come up with, but

[1:33:15] respect for trying because I agree that

[1:33:18] that the data is quite dated. Anyway,

[1:33:21] there you go. Thanks so much for being

[1:33:22] here. I always appreciate you watching.

[1:33:24] Uh, consider sharing. Subscribe to the

[1:33:26] video or the channel. Feel free to

[1:33:28] follow me on XMEK or on Instagram at

[1:33:31] realme Kevinev. I try to post there

[1:33:32] every day. And, uh, go to meet Kevin.com

[1:33:34] and use that coupon code pope.

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