Christopher J Waller: Monetary policy in a world of conflicting data

Speech by Mr Christopher J Waller, Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, at the Rocky Mountain Economic Summit Global Interdependence Center, Victor, Idaho, 14 July 2022. 

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Thank you, Mike, and thank you to the Global Interdependence Center for the invitation to speak to you today. Let me start at the place that all remarks about U.S. monetary policy should start, which is with the Federal Reserve's dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability.

As I discuss below, we have a very strong labor market, with an unemployment rate that is below the median of policymakers' expected longer-run level, and high inflation that is far above our target. We are achieving our mandate when it comes to maximum employment, but we are far from achieving our goal of stable prices. Consequently, while any monetary policy decision has implications for achieving maximum employment, and I will address those implications in a moment, the FOMC is now, and must be, utterly focused on moving inflation down toward our 2 percent target.