Fed’s Powell: Don’t expect a soft landing victory lap

The soft landing, it appears, will not be televised.

At least it won’t be announced, declared, or advertised, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told members of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee in testimony that wove around direct mentions of the upcoming presidential election and efforts to pull him into disputes over fiscal spending, energy policy, and housing, or any claim that the Fed’s sought-after “soft landing” – of low inflation and low unemployment – had already arrived.

“Will there be some announcement at some point that we’ve had a soft landing?…Some official statement that would give people some comfort?,” Representative Al Green, a Texas Democrat, asked Powell while also noting a campaign-year climate in which claims the economy was sliding into recession competed against data showing a low jobless rate, falling inflation, and steady growth.

“I don’t think by us, no,” Powell said. “We are just going to keep our heads down and do our jobs and try to deliver what the public is expecting from us. We wouldn’t be declaring victory like that.”

 

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