Rate cuts?
Another pause? Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee said all these options over interest-rate policy are on the table at the central bank right now. “I don’t see how you can look at the current situation and, at least to me, view that the only thing that’s on the table conceivably are rate cuts,” Goolsbee said May 8 in an interview on Bloomberg Television. Goolsbee’s comments add to the ongoing shift among Fed policymakers away from any consideration of a rate reduction in the near future.
That’s driven largely by concerns over inflation due to an energy-price shock triggered by the Iran War. Goolsbee doesn’t vote on monetary policy this year, but will in 2027. He reiterated that he believed both options — a rate cut and a rate hike — are possible choices ahead for him and his colleagues.