Chair Jerome Powell announced an Interest Rate cut for the First Time Since the 2008 financial crisis. Following the announcement, he took several questions from reporters. This is 45 minutes. Good afternoon and welcome. Today to lower the target for the federal funds rate by a quarter of a ofcentage point to arrange two and a quarter percent. The outlook for the u. S. Economy remains favorable in this action is designed to support that outlook. Againsttended to ensure Downside Risk, to help offset the effects these factors are andng the on the economy to promote a faster return of inflation to our symmetric 2 objective. All of these objectives will support achievement of our overall goal, to sustain for the benefit of the american people. We also decided to conclude the runoff of our securities portfolio rather than and september as previously planned. In september as previously planned. I will discuss the thinking behind todays Interest Rate reduction and then turn to the path forward. As the year began, both the economy and Monetary Policy were in a good place. The Unemployment Rate below 4 , inflation had been running there are 2 objective for nine months. Are interestrate target was that the low ends of neutral. Over the first half of the year, the economy grew at healthy pace. And it pushed on appointment to near a halfcentury low. People who live and work and lower income communities telling wages have been rising particularly for lower paying jobs. People who live and work in low and middle income communities tell us that many who struggle to find work are now getting opportunities to add new and better chapters to their lives. This underscores the perfect of sustaining expansion. To the course of the year, weak Global Growth trade policy uncertainty in muted inflation have prompted to adjust the assessment of the appropriate path of Interest Rates. The committee moved from expected rate increases this year to a patient stance of about any changes and then to todays actions. The median conten committee abot appointment has also declined issue. Reinforcing the case for somewhat lower path for policy rate. These changes in the anticipated path of Interest Rates have eased financial conditions and supported the economy. At our june meeting, Many Committee participants saw the case for lowing had strengthened. But the committee wanted to get a better sense of the overall direction of events. Since then, weve seen positive and negative development. Job growth was strong in june and looking through monthtomonth fluctuations, the data point to continue strength. We expect job growth to be slower than lester but above required to hold on appointment restudied. Gdp growth in the Second Quarter came in close to expectations. Consumption supported by rising incomes and high housel confidence is the main engine driving the economy forward. But manufacturing output has declined for two consecutive quarters in business following the Second Quarter. Foreign growth has disappointed particularly manufacturing and notably in the euro area and china. In response to the weakness any pigs around the world are increasing policy accommodation are contemplating doing so. After simmering early in the year, trade policy tension nearly boiled over in may and june but now appear to return to a simmer. Look into this variability, or business context tell us the ongoing uncertainty is making some companies were cautious about the capital spending. The domestic inflation shortfall has continued. Core inflation which excludes food and Energy Prices and a better gauge of future developments and total inflation has run at 1. 6 over the past 12 months. We continue to expect the inflation will return over time into percent. But domestic completion of pressures remain muted and goebel disinflation pressures persist. Wages are rising another the pace that would put much pressure on inflation. We are mindful that inflations returned to 2 before they are delayed and continued below target inflation could lead to worrisome and difficult to reverse downward slide and longterm expectation. Taking all of the on board, the Committee Still sees a favorable baseline outlook. Over the year, incoming information on Global Growth, trade policy uncertainty and inflation have led the community to gradually lower assessments of the path the policy interestrate that would best support outlook. Today, we judge those doctors want the policy adjustment i described. As the committee contemplates the future path of the target range to the federal funds rate, it will continue to moderate implications of incoming information for the Economic Outlook and will act as appropriate to sustain the 2 objective. Thank you, im happy to take your questions. Hi and with the new york times. To your statement here, the question is, is there any reason to believe that a 25 basis point cut will be sufficient to expediently return inflation for target and if not, what are you going to be looking at to be giving to you that you need to cover. What is the hurdle . I think you have to look at, not just the 25 basis point cut, but the Committee Actions over the course of the year. As i noted in my opening statement, we started off expecting some rate increases, we moved to patient setting for a few months and now we moved here. What youve seen over the course of your is that we move to a more accommodative policy, the economy has performed just about as expected with that gradually increasing support. And i would not take credit for all of that but i think increasing policy ordinance has kept the economy on track in the outlook favorable. In terms of the rest of your questions, the committee is thinking of this as a way of adjusting policy to a more accommodative stance to further the three objectives that i mentioned. To ensure the Downside Risks to provide support to the economy that those factors are pushing down on Economic Growth into support inflation. We think itll serve all the schools but again we think it over centrally in the policy. Michael from Bloomberg Television and radio. Theres a perception that perhaps the fed is something of a hammer in search of a nail because the latest Consumer Spending reports as you suggested, dont show any kind of demand problem in the u. S. And when you look at mortgage rates, auto lending rates, they will come down and wondering exactly what problem lower capital cost will solve . You are absolutely right, the performance of the economy has been reasonably good, the position of the economy is as close to our objectives as it is been in a long time. And the outlook is also good. What we have been monitoring since beginning of the year is Downside Risk to the outlook from weakening Global Growth and we see that everywhere, and now particularly in the european and china, and addition we see trade policy development which at times have been disruptive and less so, an also inflation many below target. So we see those as threats to what is a favorable outlook and we see this action designed to support them and keep the outlook favorable. Frankly it is a continuation of what we have been doing all year to provide more support against those very same risks. How does cutting Interest Rates lower, how does cutting Interest Rates keep that going to the cost of capital does not seem to be the issue . I really think it does and i think the evidence tells us that opposing the support, support confidence and Economic Activity, household and Business Confidence to channels that we understand. We will Lower Borrowing costs, and it will work. I think you see it since we noted that situation in june. Use all financial conditions move up and i want to credit for the whole recovery but you see confidence in june and he sought Economic Activity unhealthy basis, it seems to work through confidence channels as well as mechanical channels that you are talking about. Hi heather long from the Washington Post. You always say the fed is data dependent and much of the data that we have seen since the june meeting has surprise to the upside or has been in line with expectations. Can you give us a sense of how that better than expected data impacted the f1c inking and if we keep seeing the surprises, does that change or involve f1c thinking Going Forward . We course do what we do at every meeting, as i noted, we do a deep dive into u. S. Economic activity and goebel activity, and certainly carefully went through u. S. Economic activity which is been some positive and some negative, but overall it is shown resilient during a period. But again, the issue is more of the Downside Risks and triple inflation and were trying to addresses. So, in addition, Going Forward i would say, we are going to be monitoring those same things. We will be monitoring evolution of trade uncertainties, Global Growth and low inflation and we will also and course watch the u. S. Economy. I mentioned it shown resilient here to those issues and will put all of that together and thats how we will think about policy Going Forward. I just want to follow up on that. Would you say you guys have gotten into a new regime, this is sort of been an insurance cut and i data dependent cut, are we now more in the realm of watching headlines of trade talks and we are watching Unemployment Rate and inflation numbers, how do we know what youre going to do next and why in the new region . Three reasons for what we did, to ensure Downside Risks from trade tension. That is innocent Risk Management point in a bit of insurance. But we also feel like week Global Growth intentions are having an effect on the u. S. Economy. You see on Second Quarter, you seek weak investment and weak manufacturing. In support there. And also and also supports the return of inflation to 2 . There is definitely an insurance aspect of it. Trade is unusual. There is not a lot of experience in responding to global trade tensions. So it is something that we have not faced before and we are learning by doing. It is not exactly the same as watching global where you see growth weakening and Central Banks and governments responding with fiscal policy, and you see growth strengthening, and a business cycle. With trade tensions, which do seem to be having a significant effect on Financial Market conditions and on they evolve in a different way. And we have to follow them. I want to be clear. We play no role whatsoever in assessing or evaluating trade policies other than as trade , policy uncertainty has an effect on the u. S. Economy in in the short and mediumterm. We are not in any way criticizing trade policy, that is really not our job. Nick thimeros, the wall street journal. Chair, you and your colleagues have offered three reasons to cut rates. A lower neutral rate that may have made policy a little tighter. The global slowdown from the darker risk picture from the trade tensions, and the desire to recenter inflation expectations. Which of those factors weighs most heavily on you . And more importantly, is a quarterpoint cut going to address all of that, let alone any one of those . Chair powell i actually think different people have different weightings. That has been my experience on those things. You mentioned lower trade slowdown, and i would actually add, lower natural rate of unemployment. It has also moved down all of , which point to more accommodation. I do not think asking about a quarterpoint is the right question. You have to look back over the course of the year and see the committee moving away from rate increases, to a neutral posture, to now a rate cut. I think we have been providing and that affects the financial conditions. You see any economy which is actually performing pretty well. Growth in the first half of this year is about the same as it was in all of 2018, and a little better than our forecast for growth in 2019. I think in a way, that is Monetary Policy working. I would not just look at the 25 basis point cut as the right question. In may, it seemed as if you were setting a higher bar to cut rates, there would need to be a deterioration in the outlook. To suggestu seemed that if the outlook didnt improve there may be a rate cut. ,wheres the bar right now . There is think confusion of how the committee is responding. Chair powell we noted at the bottom of the statement that language that really says how we are thinking about it, it says as we contemplate the future path of the target range, the federal funds rate, we will continue to monitor the implications of incoming information and talks about that language. All i can tell you is we will be looking at weak Global Growth. We will be looking carefully to see how that is happening. You learn every cycle. So we will see whether growth is picking up, whether it is bottoming out we will see that , picture. We will also see on trade. We have learned a lot on trade in this cycle i think we will , continue to learn more. And on inflation, the u. S. Economy itself the performance , of the u. S. Economy will enter in. I would love to be more precise, but with trade, it is a factor that we have to assess in a new way. Those are the things we will be looking at and making decisions Going Forward. Edward lawrence, fox business network. A rate hike last december was seen as some economists as a step too far. Now the fed has waited about seven months for a rate cut. You said today that you are concerned about Downside Risks. Could some of the weakness on be because thede fed waited so long. And talk about why you feel the feel this nigel is the right level. Chair powell we do not hear that from businesses. They do not come in and say we are not investing because the federal funds rate is too high. I have not heard that from a business. What you hear is that demand is weak for their products. You see manufacturing being weak all over the world. Business investment is weak and i would not lay all of that as a door of trade talks. There is a Global Business cycle happening with manufacturing and investment. And thats been definitely a bigger factor than we expected late last year. Global growth started to slow down in the middle of last year, but that has gone on to a greater extent. And by the way trade policy , uncertainty has also been more elevated than we anticipated. In terms of we believe this is the right move for today, and we think it will serve the three ends that i mentioned. I have already gone over how we are thinking about Going Forward. You called it a midcycle adjustment to policy. What should we take this to mean . Message mean to send with this move today about future rate moves . Chair powell the sense of that , that refers back to other times when the fomc has cut rates in the middle of a cycle. I am contrasting it there with the beginning for example, the beginning of a lengthy cutting cycle. So we are not at the beginning of a lengthy cutting cycle . Chair powell that is not what we are seeing now. That is not our perspective now or our outlook. Are there any circumstances under which you would decide to pause at one Interest Rate cut, todays Interest Rate cut and not go ahead with further monetary easing at this stage . Or are you predicting that once you have embarked on this easing, you will have to at least move by one more notch Going Forward . Chair powell our policy will depend on the implications of incoming data for the Economic Outlook as well as involving , risks to that outlook. So we are going to be monitoring the implications of incoming information for the outlook, as i mentioned. So that is where i will leave you with that. Hi, victoria guido with politico. On capital, vice chairman has said that the level of Capital Requirements that exist right now are such that it is like the isntercyclical buffer already turned on, and he would like the ability to turn it down in a downturn. I was wondering if you agreed with that. Also, on realtime payments, larger banks have suggested that if the fed built its own system, that would be a bait and switch because the fed called for a privatesector system. Do you think that is a Fair Assessment . Chair powell ok, on the first. I would say that i view the level of Capital Requirements and level of capital in the system to be about right. I do agree with that. The idea that you are talking about is one that the vice chair has talked about and that is one , under consideration. In a sense, we have chosen in the u. S. That have high through the cycle requirements by doubling the surcharge that the largest banks have in their cap requirements. We in effect have already put in place countercyclical buffers. I am not saying it is the same thing. That is really the point is that we do not rely our system does not rely on our ability, it does not rely on our ability to identify the right time in the cycle to trigger a countercyclical tool. We rely on through the cycle, always on, high capital and liquidity requirements. And i think that is a good thing to do. The idea of putting it in place so you can cut it, that is something to other jurisdictions have done. It is worth considering. I think United Kingdom has a countercyclical capital buffer that is always on, but at one point is that you could cut when there is a downturn, and therefore give the banks more room. It is just under consideration. In terms of the realtime payment system, your second question, this is something that the United States is far behind other countries in term of having realtime payments to the general public. The fed, the reserve banks, and the board together convened all the stakeholders around the table to talk about how we can move forward. This is consumer groups, technology companies, banks, card companies, and pretty much all of the groups that would be interested, and worked on a project for several years. And one of the things that came out of that was a recommendation that the fed should build a 24 7 by 365 realtime Settlement System to solve that problem. We put out a proposal in october of last year about, should we do this, and we got quite a lot of comments that were overwhelmingly favorable. I would point out that in our payment system, in many places the fed operates alongside privatesector operators in wholesale payments. So it would not be unusual or out of keeping with what we have done in the past. We have not made a decision on this, but it is something that we are looking at carefully and something that we will make a decision on soon. Greg torres from bloomberg. I am trying to parse what you are saying. On the one hand, you say the policy tilt in the statement is eased financial conditions and that is helping the economy. That tilt, Market Participants are interpreting this language, will act as appropriate as still being in the statement. And on the other hand, you say it is not the start of an easing cycle. So what are you saying . Does that mean with one or two more cuts, you will be done and this policy bias comes out of the statement or simply that , this policy bias will come out sooner than market for this sooner than Market Participants think . Chair powell it is going to depend on the evolving data and the evolving risk picture. But as we look now, what we see is that it is appropriate to make an adjustment in policy to a somewhat more accommodative stance. That is what we are seeing. That is where we will be looking. We will be looking at incoming data, at all of the risks that i mentioned, and the performance of the u. S. Economy at lowinflation, we will be looking at that to make our decisions Going Forward. Scott horsley from npr. You talked for a number of times about the people who feel they are just recently getting to the punch bowl 10 years into the , expansion. Can you elaborate on how the rate cut is expected to help them . Chair powell we are getting lots of feedback for people who live in low and moderate income communities to the effect that they are now feeling the recovery and they have not felt a better labor market so this is great to hear. My view is the best thing we can do for those people is to sustain the expansion, keep it going and that is one of the , overarching goals of this move , and all of our policy moves. There is really no reason why the expansion cannot keep going. Inflation is not troublingly high. If you look at the u. S. Economy, there is no sector that is booming and therefore might bust. You have fairly wellbalanced , in a sense, economy. Though, is really consumer economy which is 70 of , the economy. The manufacturing economy, and the investment manufacturing part of the economy is more or less not growing much. It is at a healthy level but not , growing much. We hope to help with this rate cut. But overall, we are trying to sustain the expansion and try to keep close to our statutory goals, which are maximum employment and stable prices. Cameron powell, cnn. The president has repeatedly called for this rate hike and for the fed to end the runoff of the Balance Sheet. What do you say to those that say that the fed gave into what that the fed gave in to what the president wanted today . And can you elaborate further on why the fed decided to lead up its Balance Sheet runoff two month earlier today . Chair powell i gave my reasons for our reasons, really, for doing this. Just a touch on that again, this action is designed to ensure against Downside Risks from weak Global Growth and trade tension offset the negative effects those factors are having, and promote inflation to 2 . That is what we have talked about all along. We have gradually moved our policy in the direction of more accommodation. You have seen an economy that has reacted well to that. So that is what we are doing and that is why we are doing it. We never take into account political considerations. There is no place in our discussions for that. We also do not conduct Monetary Policy in order to prove our independence. We conduct Monetary Policy in order to move as close as possible to our statutory goals. And that is what we are always going to do. We are always going to use our tools that way, and at the end, we will live with the results. In terms of the Balance Sheets, that was really just a matter of simplicity and consistency. Really nothing more do it than that. Thank you. Greg rob from market watch. We were not in the room, but i think it is a fair assumption to think that two dissenters were fairly concerned about responsibility concerns. What was your response to them when those concerns were raised . Ive collected a couple of things from the imf and the bank of International Settlements that said when you have low rates, you just get more debt in the economy, and this is also something that makes it harder to raise rates. Could you talk about that . Chair powell i will speak for myself, but i understand those concerns very well. I do. I have studied them, ive spoken about them, and i take them very seriously. But as i look at todays situation, i do not see them as a reason to not take the action today. That would be my point. And one of the reasons why i think that is if you look we have a Financial Stability framework now for the first time. Before the crisis, we did not have this, but now we have it and we publish it. We look at four big things and the public can hold us accountable and compare us meeting to meeting and see if we got this right. It is transparent now. We look at valuation pressures and we do see notable pressures in some markets but not at a , highly troubling level. In terms of household borrowing, and business borrowing households in very good shape overall. I will come back to business borrowing. Leverage in the Financial System is lowend funding risk is low. Overall, the staff view has been and my view has been, overall Financial Stability vulnerabilities are moderate. The place that gets all of the attention right now, business borrowing. We look very carefully at that. What has happened with business borrowing is the loans have , moved off of the Balance Sheets of the banks into market based vehicles which tend to be , stably funded. But nonetheless, it was clear that the highly leveraged business sector could act as an amplifier to a downturn. So we are watching it carefully. If you look overall at the u. S. But Financial System, what you see is a high level of resilience, much higher than it was before the crisis. That is something to take and comfort from. All of it gives us the ability to use Monetary Policy for its purposes, and rely on supervisory and regulatory tools to keep the Financial System resilient. So you are not doing something today to help today , and then it is going to cause problems down the road . You are not worried about that dynamic . Chair powell there are very few things that i do not worry about at all. [laughter] of course, we monitor. We have, every quarter, we have an extensive briefing on Financial Stability, and we had that yesterday. We look at this on an ongoing basis. We have a great team. We liaise with Central Banks around the world. So we are very much monitoring these things all the time. And we worry about them all the time. We are looking for that thing that we may have missed a lot of the time. But the things we have not missed, they painted a mixed picture, but not one that should prevent us from taking Monetary Policy actions we think are appropriate to support the economy. Marty, ap. You have talked in this press conference about being data dependent Going Forward and this is not the start of a series of rate cuts. But the Financial Markets seem to think this is the start of a series of rate cuts, and they are predicting three and four cuts this year. Is this your effort to try to damp down that . Chair powell i did not say it is just one or anything like that. What i said is when you think , about rate cutting cycles, they go on for a long time, and the committee is not seeing us in that place. You would do that if you saw a real economic weakness and you thought the federal funds rate needed to be cut a lot. That is not what we are seeing. That is not what we are seeing. What we are seeing is that it is appropriate to adjust policy to a somewhat more accommodative stance over time and that is how , we are looking at it. What i said was, it felt like a longer cutting cycle and i was referring to what we do when there is a recession or severe downturn. That is what i was ruling out. If you look back at other midcycle adjustments, i do not know if they will be comparable, but you will see examples of these. Don lee, los angeles times. You mentioned the difficulty with assessing trade tensions in the Economic Outlook. Could you say how much of a factor the u. S. China trade conflict was in the feds decision to cut rates. Decision to cut rates . And if the current stalemate and the threat of mark harris continue, what would that mean for future Interest Rates and possible cuts . Chair powell i would not bring it down to any one thing or any factor. One we look at a broad range of factors and trade uncertainty. Trade policy uncertainty is one of them. That certainly includes the discussion of china, but i would not be able to tell you how much is due to that. With trade, we have to react to the developments, and we do not know what they will be. So it is hard to exactly say. Certainly, we have seen when there is a sharp confrontation between two large economies, you can ce facts on Business Confidence pretty quickly, but then we saw it unwind after that. You see it returning to a much lower temperature, i think. Again, with trade policy we are just going to be watching and trying to assess the implications for the u. S. Outlook. [indiscernible] chair powell the mechanical effects of the tariffs are quite small. They are not large as it relates to the u. S. Economy. The real question is, what are the effects of the economy through the Business Confidence channel . And again, it is very hard to tease that out. Ive seen some resources which says they are meaningful effects on output, as to say not , trivial. It sounds right, but it is hard there is no way to get an accurate measure. Businesses will tell you that it is a factor, particularly manufacturing businesses that have supply chains that Cross International borders. They will all tell you that it has been a challenge. Many have made adjustments and have gotten to a place where it is ok, but it is a challenge. Paul from news wires. As this press conference has got underway, the dow is down as much as 400 points. What i am hearing is a reluctance to provide more guidance around the future path of rates, and i wonder if that reflects a greater lack of consensus on the committee and , how much consensus do you want to see around these decisions people andour how split are people about this . Chair powell you are right. There are a range of views on the committee, but the community is completely unified on our dedication to making the best policy decisions that we make. That means people have a responsibility to do their best thinking and present that thinking. And i would not have any other way. In terms of a way forward, we will be monitoring the factors i mentioned. That is the roadmap we will follow Going Forward. We are going to be data dependent. We are going to be, as we always are, doing what we need to do what we believe we need to do to , support economic expansion. John hellman, american banker. It has been about 18 months since the fed issued its enforcement action against wells fargo. I was wondering if you could characterize the progress of the bank has made towards the shortcomings it had towards its Risk Management processes, and i am also curious whether their lack of a permanent ceo has progress in your eyes. , chair powell the problems as wells fargo, that arose at wells fargo around Risk Management and the way they dealt with the consumer were actually pretty deep. I think the company realizes and that. And they are not going to be fixed they have not been fixed quickly and frankly, we do not expect them to be fixed quickly. They will be under the growth cap, our enforcement action, until the board votes to lift it. And that is not something we are considering doing right now. The company is working to and address these issues, but issues, andpseated it takes time to address them. I would not comment on the co question. I dont really have anything for you on that. Are you pleased with the response that you are getting from them . Chair powell i am not going to characterize it. I mean, i have characterized it. We have an enforcement action in place, the company is working away to address it, they take it seriously, i think they see it as we do as something that has , to go deep, and we will lift the growth cap when we are satisfied. So when we have our next recession, the fed will have less room it will happen the fed will have less room to maneuver cutting Interest Rates since you are cutting now. , how big of a problem will that be . Chair powell i will question your premise for a second. If you remember, again, one of the purposes of our cut today is to support the expansion. We do not know when if that works really well and the economy gets going again, you do not know where the funds in other cycles, and i dont know whether this will happen or not, but in other cycles, the fed wound up raising rates again after the midcycle. I am not predicting that, but i do not know that we will have less ammo because of these things. You will not be able to cut as much if rates are low and you , will have less ammo in that sense. Chair powell but you are assuming that we would never raise rates again, that once we cut these rates, they can never go back up again. Just as a matter of principle, i do not think that is right. In other long, long cycles along u. S. Business cycles have this kind ofolved event where the fed will stop , hiking, in fact cut, and go back to hiking. I do not know if that will happen. It does not seem like something that will be particularly likely, but we do not know. The other thing is, by extending the cycle, you do have a lot of benefits from that. We will use the tools we have, a couple of rate hikes one way or the other is not going to matter that much. If there is a downturn, you right, thereare will eventually be one, and we will use all tools aggressively as we need to one the time comes. Hi, jean young with mmi. Can you give us an update on the ongoing reassessment framework . And have the discussions so far this year had any bearing on todays decision . Chair powell the Monetary Policy review is really there at the way we make policy in the longer run. It is not something that enters directly into our discussions today. So far we have had a series of meetings called fed listens at almost all of the reserve banks. We meet with the constituencies we serve, and they have been very, very successful, hearing from people, not just economists, but people who are not economists, how their lives interact with the feds work. It has been great. It has been even better than i hoped it would be. We are just now beginning the process of incorporating all of that feedback and we are , going to be having a series of meetings, beginning today and yesterday, as we evaluate the questions that were asked about our frameworks. So it is very early to say where that is going. But we are setting the table now and looking at what our framework is and how it has performed looking at how all , frameworks performed around the world during the Global Financial crisis. I expect we will be at this a while. I am very excited about it. I think it has been a good exercise. It has opened us up to sunlight and perspectives that we might not have gotten otherwise. And i think it is a good time. 10 years after the crisis, you are living in a new normal for the economy and Monetary Policy, and it is a good time to step back and ask whether there are some things we can do to improve our framework. Hello, mr. Chairman. Courtney brown from axios. Can you give us a sense of whether the committee feels restrained by developments in the Financial Markets . Chair powell i think this was well telegraphed. What we did today was very consistent with what we were going to do. With we had that we were going to do. I mentioned the reasons for it, they have been well telegraphed, and i think they will achieve their goals. We do know that Monetary Policy works through communications and then actions are consistent with those communications. We think the changes we have made this year have really worked. We always maintain the ability to adjust our communications and actions in light of incoming data and the risk picture. I will leave it there. Brian from yahoo finance. To expand on that point about communication we saw that , markets have been particularly sensitive with regard to new york fed president john williamss remarks. Thefed added language in statement saying the fed is future rates, and im wondering now whether there is kind of this Inflection Point about whether or not the Downside Risk because you had to cut rates outweighs the fact that you still see a positive outlook of the u. S. Economy at a baseline. Wondering if you can clarify all of those things within the context of the challenges of communicating it. Chair powell i see the u. S. Outlook as being a positive one. We have had these global risks to the outlook. There is really nothing in the u. S. Economy that presents a prominent nearterm threat to the u. S. Economy. As i mentioned there is no , segment that is really, or sector that is really boiling over and overheating. There is nothing like that. Within the economy, it is healthy, so i would say that. Downside risk coming from abroad , and of course we are concerned about low inflation. And by the way, those risks from abroad are affecting the Manufacturing Sector here and Business Investment and fixed investment. Thank you very much. Thank you thank you very much. Chair powell thank you. August 31, on book tv on cspan2. Washington journal continues. Host we are back with Washington Post economic correspondent heather long. She will talk about what the fed did this week and how it affects us. Good morning. Tell me what fed chair Jerome Powell actually announced this