WASHINGTON (AP) — Here is a transcript of an Associated Press interview Wednesday with Tom Barkin, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. It has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Q: Certainly the news of the day is the inflation report. What did you think of that? What did it tell us about where inflation is going and how the Fed's policies are working?
A: Well, it’s — inflation remains, I’d call it stubbornly high. The headline and the core were about as expected, but if you just look through any one report, and you focus on the core, which is probably the best place to look, month after month after month, it’s coming in at .4%, .5%, or .3%, where you’d really like it to be moving down and in concert with our target.
You do need to look through the one timers. There are some numbers that moved up a lot like used cars, there’s the numbers that moved down a lot like air travel and hotels. But I think just looking through all that it still paints a picture of inflation that is stubbornly high.
And what I think is going on, I’ve spoken a little about this, is businesses, firms, consumers had 30 years of inflation that was basically non-existent, very stable and at our target, and that really tightened their expectations around 2% as what’s reasonable both to ask for and to receive. And I think the experience the last two years, where inflation has been high, persistent, and talk about inflation, has been ubiquitous, that’s just opened people’s apertures. I think firms are pushing to see if they can’t get more price. Consumers seemed more willing to accept it. And therefore I think getting back to our target is just going to take time. It’ll just take time.
Q: What does that mean, though, for the Fed statement at the last meeting, which said — at...
