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15 Jan 2019
Fed's Kaplan: Fed would be "wise" to wait on any further policy action
Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan recently crossed the wires arguing that the government shutdown would hurt consumer spending as it would leave 800,000 workers without a paycheck.
Key quotes (via Reuters)
- U.S. growth can diverge from the rest of the world, but not indefinitely.
- U.S. economy faces risks from global growth, weakness in interest sensitive industries, and tightening financial conditions.
- Jump in high yield credit spread last fall made him concerned about impact on economy of tightening credit access.
- Given long list of risks, the Fed would be "wise" to wait on any further policy action.
- Consumers still have capacity to spend.
- Fiscal stimulus wanes GDP could slow back to trend growth of around 1.75 percent.
- Despite very tight labor market, fed has luxury of patience, given low inflation.
- Inflation has been muted and expects that to continue.