Powell says high inflation caused by Trump's tariffs - Reuters

[TexasTowelie]

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Trump's tariffs are the main factor behind inflation exceeding the central bank's 2% goal, describing them as a one-time price increase.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. lol

Powell tells it like it is. He's been a good Fed chair, not saying what Trump wants to hear. In his last few months in office, taking a few parting shots?

[progree]

2. It's 1:10 m:s video, so not one of those 10 minute videos where some callow blabber-mouth does 90% of the talking

One of the key things (start at 0:14) is that after saying we think the tariffs is likely causing a one-time price increase, he said our job is to make sure that is the case.

When I read "describing them as a one-time price increase", the implication of that is that, barring further tariff increases, the inflation rate will fall to the lower pre-tariffs level we had. Meaning essentially the inflation rate problem is not much of a problem going forward (although the one-time price increases will remain with us). So I was very glad to hear, "our job is to make sure that is the case"

Another noteworthy thing is that he seems to believe the government data on inflation and the labor market. The KK! Brigade* tells us this is all Kabuki theater, that it's "obvious" that the Krasnov admin is rigging the numbers, and besides blah blah statistics are fundamentally all crap anyway (the same thing MAGA said back in 2023-2024 when Biden had good numbers, it's all very familiar)

*Krasnov Krasnov! Brigade

ETA much editing done since getting the "Rec", including adding the entire "Another noteworthy thing" paragraph so don't assume that person recs the way it is written now.