Transcripts For CSPAN Federal 20240706

It is not for some foundation with a bunch of old white guys to tell you what you should or should not do with your body, especially when they do not support agencies like casa. Chair powell good afternoon. Before discussing todays meeting, let me comment briefly on recent development in the Banking Sector. Conditions in that sector have broadly improved since early march and the u. S. Banking system is sound and resilient. We will continue to monitor conditions in the sector. We are committed to learning the right lessons from this episode and will work to prevent events like these from happening again. The first step in that process, last week, we released vice chair for supervision barrs review of Silicon Valley bank. The findings underscore the need to address our rules and supervisory practices to make for a stronger and more resilient Banking System and im confident we will do so. From the perspective of Monetary Policy, our focus remains on our dual mandate to promote maximum employment and stable prices for the american people. My colleagues and i understand the hardship that high inflation is causing and remain strongly committed to bringing inflation back down to our 2 goal. Price stability is the responsibility of the Federal Reserve. Without price stability, the economy does not work for anyone. In particular, without price stability, we will not achieve a sustained period of strong labor Market Conditions that benefit all. The fomc raised its policy Interest Rate by. 25 . Since early last year, we have raised Interest Rates by a total of five point of five Percentage Points. We are also continuing to reduce our securities holdings, looking ahead. We will take a data dependent approach to determine the extent to which additional policy may be appropriate. I will have more to say after briefly reviewing economic developments. The u. S. Economy slowed significantly last year with real gdp rising at a below trend pace of 0. 9 . The pace of Economic Growth in the First Quarter of this year continued to be modest at 1. 1 despite a pickup in consumer spending. Activity in the housing sector remains weak, largely reflecting higher mortgage rates. Higher Interest Rates at a slower output growth also appeared to be weighing on business fixed investment. The labor market remains tight. Over the first three months of the year, job gains averaged 345,000 jobs per month. The Unemployment Rate remained very low in march at 3. 5 . Even so, there are some signs that supply and demand in the labor market are coming back into balance. The Labor Force Participation rate has moved up in recent months, particularly for individuals 25 to 54 years. Nominal wage growth has shown some signs of easing and Job Vacancies have declined so far this year. Overall, labor demand still substantially exceeds the supply of available workers. Inflation remains well above our longer on goal of 2 . Over the twelvemonth sending in march, total pc prices rose 4. 2 , excluding the volatile food and energy categories. Inflation has moderated someone since the middle of last year moderated somewhat since the middle of last year yet inflation continues to run high and getting back down to 2 has a long way to go. Despite elevated inflation, longterm expectations remain well anchored, as reflected in a broad range of surveys of households, businesses and forecasters as well as measures from financial markets. The feds Monetary Policy actions are guided by our mandate to provide to promote maximum employment and stable prices for the american people. My colleagues and i are acutely aware that high inflation poses significant hardship as it erodes purchasing power, especially for those least able to meet the higher cost of essentials like food, housing and transportation. We are highly attentive to the risks high inflation poses to both sides of our mandate and we are strongly committed to returning inflation to our 2 objective. At todays meeting, the committee raised the target range for the federal funds rate by. 25 , bringing it to 5. 25 , and are continuing the process of reducing our securities holdings. With todays action, we have raised Interest Rates by five Percentage Points in the little more than the year. We are seeing the effects of our policy tightening ondemand in the most Interest Rate sensitive sectors of the economy, particularly housing investment. It will take time for the full effects of monetary restraint to be realized, especially on inflation. In addition, the economy is likely to face further headwinds from tighter Credit Conditions. Credit conditions had already been tightening over the past year or so in response to our policy actions and the softer economic outlook. The strains that emerged in the Banking Sector in early march appear to be resulting in even tighter Credit Conditions for households and businesses. In turn, these tighter conditions are likely to weigh on Economic Activity and inflation. The extent of these effects remains uncertain. In light of these uncertain headwinds, along with Monetary Policy restraint, our future policy actions will depend on how events unfold. Determining the extent to which additional policy firming will be needed, we will take into account the accumulative tightening of Monetary Policy, the way in which this affects Economic Activity and inflation, and economics. We will make that determination meeting by meeting based on the totality of incoming data and implications for Economic Activity in inflation and we are prepared to do more if greater Monetary Policy restraint is warranted. We remain committed to bringing inflation back down to our 2 goal and to keep our longerterm Inflation Expectations well anchored. Reducing inflation is likely to require a period of below trend growth and some softening of labor Market Conditions, restoring price stability is essential to set the stage for achieving maximum employment and stable prices over the longer run. To conclude, we understand our actions affect communities, families and businesses across the country. Everything we do is in service to our public mission. We at the fed will do everything we can to achieve our maximum employment and price stability goals. Thank you. I look forward to your questions. Gina, new york times. I wonder if you could tell us whether we should read the Statement Today as a suggestion that the committee is prepared to pause Interest Rate increases in june and i also wonder if the fed staff has revised their forecast for a mild recession from the march minutes, and if so, what a recession like what they are envisioning would look and feel like when it comes to the Unemployment Rate. Chair powell taking your question, today, our decision was to raise the fed funds rate by. 25 . A decision on a pause was not made today. You will have noticed that, in the statement for march, we had a sentence that said the committee anticipates some additional policy firming may be appropriate. That sentence is not in the statement anymore. We took that out. We said instead that in determining the extent to which additional firming may be appropriate to get to 2 inflation, we will take into account other factors. We are no longer saying we anticipate. So we will be driven by incoming data meeting by meeting and will address that at the june meeting. So the staffs forecast. Let me say start by saying that that is not my own most likely case, which is that the economy will continue to grow at a modest rate this year. Different people on the committee have different forecasts. That is my own assessment of the most likely path. The staff produces its own forecasts independent of the participants, which include the governors and reserve Bank President s, and we think this is a healthy thing, that the staff is writing down what they think. They are not especially influenced by what the governors think and vice versa. The governors are not taking with the staff says and writing that down. So it is actually good that the staff and individual participants can have different perspectives. So broadly the forecast was for a mild recession. By that, i would characterize it as one in which the rise in unemployment is smaller than has been typical in modern era recessions. I would not want to characterize the staffs forecast for this meeting. We will leave that to the minutes, but broadly similar to that. Reporter thank you, chair powell. Washington post. I am wondering if you can talk about the account of possible effects of a debt limit standoff. Do you see any economic effects of getting close to a default and what that would look like . Chair powell i would not want to speculate but i will say this. These are fiscal policy matters, for starters, and therefore congress and the administration and they are therefore for congress and the elected administration to deal with. It is essential to debt ceiling be raised in a timely way so the government can pay its bills when they are due. A failure to do that would be unprecedented. We would be in uncharted territory and the consequences to the economy would be highly uncertain and could be quite a verse. I will leave it there. We did not give advice to either side. We would just point out that it is very important this be done. The other point i will make about that, though, is that no one should assume that the fed can protect the economy from the potential short and longterm effects of a failure to pay our bills on time. We it would be so uncertain that it is important that we never get to a place where we are talking about or even having a situation where the u. S. Government is not paying its bills. Reporter was discussion around the uncertainty of a possible standoff affecting that Monetary Policy decision . Chair powell i would not say that it did. We talk a lot about risks to the outlook and that came up. A number of people did raise that as a risk. I would not say it was important in todays Monetary Policy decision. Reporter mr. Chairman cnbc. Can you tell us what the Federal Reserve board did in the wake of the february presentation, where you informed that Silicon Valley bank and others work experiencing others were experiencing Interest Rate risks and can you tell us what you have done in the wake of recent Bank Failures to make sure that banks are currently appropriately managing Interest Rate risks . Part three but it is all the same question, do you think the separation principle that Monetary Policy and supervision can be handled with different tools . Chair powell i have gone back and looked at it carefully. It was a general presentation. It was an informational briefing of the whole board. All members were there. It was about Interest Rate risks in the banks. Lots of data. There was one page on Silicon Valley bank, which talked about the amount of losses they are they had in their portfolio. There was nothing in it, that i recall anyway, about the risk of a bank run. The takeaway was they were going to do an assessment, a horizontal assessment of banks. It was not it was not presented as an urgent or alarming situation. It was presented as an informational, nondecisional thing, and i thought it was a good presentation and i do remember it. In terms of what we are doing, course, banks themselves, many banks, are attending to liquidity and taking opportunity now, since the events of early march, to build liquidity. The separation principle. Like many things, it is very useful, but, you know, ultimately has its limits. In this particular case, we have found that the Monetary Policy tools and Financial Stability tools are not in conflict. They are working well together. We have used their Financial Stability tools to support banks through our lending facilities and at the same time have been able to use our Monetary Policy tools to foster maximum employment and price stability. Reporter i do not mean to be argumentative, but the staff report said svb presented a significant Interest Rate risk and banks with unrealized losses face a significant safety and soundness risk. Why was that not alarming . Chair powell i did not say it was not alarming. It was. They pointed out something they were working on. They mentioned they had taken regulatory actions in the form of matters requiring attention. It was to say, yes, this is a bank and there are other banks experiencing these things and we are on the case. Reporter hi, chair powell. With the recent bank turmoil, we have seen multiple banks by other banks, and i was curious whether you think further consolidation in the Banking Sector would increase or decrease Financial Stability and whether you have any concerns about the biggest bank in the u. S. Getting even larger biggest banks in the u. S. Getting even larger. Chair powell i do not have an agenda to further consolidate banks. Consolidation has been a factor in the u. S. Banking industry since interstate banking and even before, more than 30 years. When i started, there were 13,000 banks and now there are 4000 and change. I personally have long felt that having small, medium and large sized banks is a great part of our making system. The Community Banks serve particular customers very well. Regional banks serve very important purposes. And the various kinds of large banks do as well. So it is healthy to have a range of different kinds of banks doing different things. I think thats a positive thing. Is it a financial i would just say, in terms of j. P. Morgan buying First Republic, the fdic really runs the process of closing and selling a closed bank completely. That is their role so i dont have a comment on that process. Theres an exception to the deposit cap for failing banks, so it was legitimate. The fbi see i believe is bound by the law to take the bid the fdic i believe is bound by the law to take the bid that is the least cost. I think its probably a good policy that we do not want the largest banks doing big acquisitions. That is the policy. But this is an exception for a failing bank and i think its a good outcome for the Banking System. It also would have been a good outcome for the Banking System at one of the regional banks. That could have been the outcome but ultimately we have to follow the law in our agencies and the law as it goes to the least cost bit. Reporter thank you. Colby with the financial times. At the march meeting, you mentioned that the tightening of Credit Conditions from the recent bank stress could be equal to one or two more rate increases, so given developments since then, how has your estimate changed . Chair powell i followed that up by saying it is quite impossible to have a precise estimate or words to that effect, but that is the idea. We have been raising Interest Rates and that raises the price of credit and that restricts credit in the economy working through the price mechanism, and when banks raise their credit standards, that can make credit tighter in a broadly similar way. It is not possible to make a clean translation between one and the other, although firms are trying that and we are trying, but ultimately, we have to be honest and humble about our ability to make a precise assessment. It does complicate the task of creating a sufficiently restrictive stance, but conceptually, Interest Rates, and principal, we think we will not have to raise rates quite as high. The extent of that is so hard to predict because we dont how persistent these effects will be, how large they will be and how long that will take to be transmitted, but that is something we will be watching carefully. Reporter to follow up, what does it suggest about the scope for the committee to pause rate increases perhaps as early as next month even if the data remains strong if it is having some kind of substitute affect . Chair powell this is something we have to factor in. I guess i would say it this way. The assessment of the extent to which additional policy firming may be appropriate will be an ongoing one, meeting by meeting, and we will be looking at the factors i mentioned listed in the statement, the obvious factors. That is the way we will be thinking about it. And that is really all we can do. It does complicate. We have a broad understanding of Monetary Policy. Credit tightening is a different thing. Theres a lot of literature on that but translating it into rate hikes is uncertain. Nonetheless, we will be able to see whats happening with Credit Conditions, with lending. We get a lot of data on that and we will factor that into our decisionmaking. Reporter howard with reuters. Thank you. The statement dropped the reference to sufficiently restrictive. I was wondering, given your baseline outlook, whether you feel this current rate of 5 to 5. 2 5 is sufficiently restrictive. Chair powell that will be an ongoing assessment. We will need data to accumulate on that. That would mean we think we have reached that point and i think its not possible to say that with confidence now. But nonetheless, you will know that you will note that the summary of Economic Projections from the march meeting showed that, at that point, the meeting participants thought this was the appropriate level of the ultimate high level of rates. We dont know that. We will revisit that at the june meeting. We will just have before we declare that, i think we will have to see data accumulating and, you know, make that assessment. Reporter to follow up on credit, can you give us a sense of what the survey indicated . It was already 40 of banks were tightening credit as of the last survey. What did this one show and how did that way into your deliberations . Chair powell so we are going to release the results of the sluice on may 8, and i would say that that survey is probably consistent with what we and others have been thinking about the situation and what we are seeing from other sources. You will have seen the beige book and listened to the various earnings calls to indicate that midsized banks, some of them, have been tightening lending standards. I think data will show lending has continued to grow but the pace has been slowing since the second half of last year. Reporter nick of the wall street journal. Chair powell, the argument around the end of last year and beginning of this year to slow the pace of increases was to give yourself time to study the effects of those moves. After the Bank Failures in march, the fed staff projected a recession starting later this year. My question is why it was necessary to raise Interest Rates today, or, put differently, if the whole point of slowing down the pace was to see the effects of your moves and now you have been seeing the effects of those moves, why did the committee feel it was necessary to keep moving . Chair powell well, we the reason is that, again, with our Monetary Policy, we are trying to reach and stay at for an extended period a level of policy stance that is sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation to 2 over time. That is what we are trying to do with our tool. I think slowing down was the right move. I think it has enabled us to see more data and will continue to do so. So, you know, we really, you know, we have to balance, always have to balance, the risk of not doing enough and not getting inflation under control against the risk of maybe slowing down Economic Activity too much. We thought this rate hike, along with the meaningful change in our policy statement, was the right way to balance that. Reporter just a followup, what you said in response to howards question, you will need data to accumulate to assess if this is a sufficiently restrictive stance. Could that accumulate over a longer period than a six week intermeeting cycle . Chair powell as i mentioned, i would just say that this assessment will be an ongoing one. You cannot, with economic data, you cannot take inflation. Look back. We have seen inflation come down, move back up, two or three times since march of 2021. Have seen inflation come down and come right back up. So i think you will want to see that a few months of data will persuade you that you have got this right kind of thing. You know, we have the luxury. We have raised 500 basis points. I think policy is tight. I think real rates you can calculate the many different ways, but one way is to look at the nominal rate and subtract a reasonable estimate of one year inflation. So you have 2 real rates. That is meaningfully above what most people, many people anyway, would assess as the neutral rate, so policy is tight. You see that in activities and also begin to see it more and more in other activities. If you put the credit tightening on top of that and the qt thats ongoing, i think you feel like we we may not be far off or are possible even at that level. Reporter edward. Thank you very much, chair powell. Edward lawrence of foxbusiness. If the Federal Reserve gets down to 3 of inflation as the projections show, would it be ok for you for a prolonged period of 3 inflation and hoping for some outside event to move down to the two percent target . Chair powell we will also have 2 as our target and will be focused on getting there. Reporter would you be ok with a prolonged 3 . Chair powell let me say that is not what we are looking for. We are looking for inflation going down to 2 over time. I mean, we thats not a question before us. Ultimately, we are not looking to get to 3 and then drop our tools. We have a goal of getting to 2 . We think it will take some time. We do not think it will be a smooth process. We are going to need to stay at this for a while. Reporter the other side of the mandate, the jobs side, how does it balance going from 3 to 2 . Chair powell they will both matter equally at that point. Right now, you have a labor market thats still extraordinarily tight. You have 1. 6 job openings for every unemployed person. We do see some evidence of softening in labor Market Conditions but overall you are near a 50 year low in unemployment. Wages, you will have seen that the wage number from late last week, whenever it was, and it is a couple Percentage Points above what would be consistent with 2 inflation over time, so we do see some softening. We see new labor supply coming in. These are positive developments but the labor market is very strong, whereas inflation is running high, well above our goal. Right now, we need to be focusing on bringing inflation down. We have done that so far without an limit going up. Reporter hi, chair powell. Matthew with bloomberg news. Many analysts at the time of the march fomc saw that fed officials implied a recession was instore given their estimates and im wondering if you could elaborate on why you are optimistic that a recession can be avoided given that thats the forecast, possibly also the broader committees forecast as well, and also, of course, most privatesector forecasters. Chair powell i do not think i know what is printed in the summary of Economic Projections. I do not think you can deduce exactly what you said about what participants think because you do not know what they were thinking for First Quarter gdp at that point. They could have been thinking of a fairly low number. In any case, i continue to think it is possible that this time is different. The reason is theres just so much excess demand, really, in the labor market. It is interesting. We raised rates by 5 in 14 months and the Unemployment Rate is 3. 5 , even lower than where it was when we started. Job openings are still very high. We see by surveys and much evidence that conditions are cooling gradually, but it is different. It was not supposed to be possible for job openings to decline by as much as they have declined without unemployment going up. Well, that is what we have seen. There are no promises in this but it seems to me that its possible that we can continue to have a cooling in the labor market without having big increases in unemployment that have gone with many prior prior episodes. That would be against history. I appreciate that. Get that would be against the pattern. I think the situation in the labor market, but so much excess demand, yet wages have wage increases have been moving down. That is a good sign. Get down to more sustainable levels. It is still possible. I think the case of avoiding our a recession is, in my view, more likely than having a recession. But it is not the case of having a recession i do not rule that out either. The committee noted in march that wage growth was still well above 2 inflation. Do you see this as well . Can you explain how you come to that judgment . We look at a range of wage measures. You have domino. You assume wage increases should be equal to supply increases plus inflation. Look at average Hourly Earnings and the wage of vento wage tracker per hour. Those and many others. You can look at what they would have to run at over a long period of time for that to be consistent with 2 inflation. It can deviate. Corporate margins can go up and down. There is a feature of long expansions where they do go down. This happens later in an expansion. We calculate those. You have to take the precision with a grain of salt. What they will show is, if wages are running at 5 , 3 is closer to where they need to wage increases closer to 3 is what it would take to be consistent with inflation over a longer period of time. By the way, i do not think wages are the principal driver of inflation. U. S. Navy are a specific question. I think wages and prices tend to move together and it is hard to say what is causing what. But i have never said that wages are a principal driver. I do not think that is right. Great. Chris from associated press. Mentioned profit margins. Those did expand sharply during an inflationary period. While there are signs that are starting to decline, many economistshave not fallen as much as expected, given we are seeing some pullback among consumer spending. Do you see as a driver of higher prices . Would you expect them to narrow and contribute to reduced inflation in the coming months . Chair powell higher profits and higher margins are what happens when you have an increase. Too much demand, not enough supply. We have been in situation in many parts of the economy where supply has been fixed or not flexible enough. The way the market clears is through higher prices. As goods pipelines have gotten back to normal, so that we do not have a long wait and shortages, i think you will see inflation come down. You will see corporate margins coming down as a result of a return of full competition, where there is enough supply to meet demand. That would be the dynamic our expect the dynamic i would expect. Michael mckee from Bloomberg Radio and television. Can you tell us about what your policy reaction function is . Your policy framework, Going Forward . When you look at the economy at the next meeting, are you looking at incoming data, which is by definition backward looking . Are you forecasting what is likely to happen . Are you rolling out the rate because the market has priced in . And did not catch the last part. Markets have priced in. Chair powell ok. We look at a combination of data and forecasts. The idea is too great a good forecast based on what you see in the data. We are always looking at both. It will be obvious things like readings on inflation, wages, Economic Growth, and on the labor market. All of those, many things. They particular the particular focus over the past six or seven weeks now and Going Forward is going to be what is happening with credit tightening. Our small and mediumsized banks tightening credit standards, and is this having an effect on loans and lending echo so we can begin to assess how thus and lending . So we can begin to assess how this fits with monetary tightening. I would point that we raised rates by five Percentage Points. We are shifting the balance sheet. Now, we have Credit Conditions tightening. Not just in the normal way but perhaps more due to what has happened. We have to factor all of this in and make our assessment of whether our policy stands is sufficiently restrictive. We have to do this in a world where policy works with long invariable legs. This is challenging, but we will make our best assessment. What about the idea of rate cuts . We, on the committee, have a view that inflation is going to come down not so quickly. It will take some time. In this world, if the forecast is broadly right, it would not be appropriate to cut rate. If you have a different forecast, and markets have been, from time to time, pricing in rapid reductions and inflation, we would factor this in. But that is not our forecast. The history over the last two years has been very much that inflation moves down. Particularly, if you look at noun housing services, it has not nonhousing services, it has not moved much. We think demand will have to begin and labor Market Conditions may have to sophomore to begin to see prime risk there. In that world, it would not be appropriate for us to cut rates. Courtney. Courtney brown from axios. I am curious how you view the role of the overnight reverse repo facility in the context of the current banking stress. You think it is contributing by making it more attractive for money market funds to compete with banks for deposits . Did the committee discussed changes to the structure of the facility or do you see this being put on the table in the future . Chair powell we looked at very carefully. It is really not contributing. It has not actually been growing. It moved down and then back up to where it was. What happened in when there were big deposit flows, which have really stabilized now, what happened was Institutional Investors took their plan share deposits and put them in government money market funds which bought them from the home ins and homeland banks and things like this. Over the course of the last year, Retail Investors have been gradual, as they do in every tightening sector. Gradually moving their deposits into higher places like cds and other things. That is a gradual process that is natural during a tightening cycle. What was unusual was the Institutional Investors moving their underinsured uninsured deposits and spreading them around. But it does not seem to have any effect on the overnight repo facility. That is really there to help us keep rates where they are supposed to be and is serving that purpose very well. Sarah. Sarah weiss, cbs news. I want to go back to the debt ceiling. In you talked about this in terms of fiscal policy, but can you speak to what the impact of a default would mean for americans across the country, the markets, and borrowing . Chair powell i would just say, i do not think that we should be should not even be talking about a world in which the u. S. Does not pay its bills. It should not be a thing. We do not no one should assume that the fed can do or protect the economy and our Financial System or reputation globally from the damage such an event may inflict. Scott. Thinks mr. Turman. Scott from npr. Last week, vice chair bar identified some factors that he thought contributed to the tightening of 2019. And also what he called a cultural shift towards less aggressive oversight. You were here in 2019. Do you share that view and what would it take to a stronger oversight . That should really be necessary. Chair powell i did not take part in creating the report or doing the work. I have a ride have read and i find it persuasive. A large bank failed quite suddenly and unexpectedly, in a way that threatened to spread contagion into the Financial System. I think the only thing that i am really focused on is to understand what went wrong. What happened. And identify what we need to do to address that. Some of that is it may just have been technology involving how we have to keep up with this. Some may be our policies, supervisory and regulatory. Our job now is to identify the things and implement them. Thats the only thing i care about. I am accountable for doing everything i can to make sure that happened. Evan. Evan evan reiser with him and i market news. Early in the early stage or near the end stage of the banking turmoil among regional banks . Secondly, do you still have a biased tightening of rights . Is that with the statement is saying . Chair powell i guess i would say it this way. There were three large banks from the very beginning that were at the heart of the stress that we saw in early march. A severe period of stress. Those have now all been resolved and all the depositors have been protected. I think the resolution theyll of First Republic draws a the resolution failed of First Republic draws a step toward the period of severe stress. I also think that we are very focused on what is happening with credit availability. Particularly, with what you saw in the beach book and you will see beige book and what you will see are small and mediumsized banks feeling they need to tighten credit standards. More broadly, we will continue to very carefully monitor what is going on in the Banking System. We will factor that assessment into our decisions in an important they Going Forward. Greg. Greg thank you, mr. Chairman. Greg rob. I wonder if you have done any flexion on your own actions during this crisis and leading up to it since you have been chairman. I think you have heard a couple times i have heard you say couple times that you deferred to the vice chair division. Do you think that was a right way to go about this . Your comments on that . Chair powell i have been chair of the board for five plus years and i fully recognize we have made mistakes. I think we have learned new things as well, and i think we need to do better. I thought the report was unflinching, and appropriately so. I welcome it. I agree and support the recommendations, as i feel i am personally accountable to do what i can to foster measures that will address the problem. On the vice chair for supervision, the place to start is this statutory role which is quite unusual. The vice chair, it says, shall deploy policy recommendations, develop policies for the board regarding supervision, and shall oversee the supervision and regulation of search such guest such. The vice chair sets the supervision for the board of governors. Powers wanted that person to have political accountability for developing that agenda. The way it has worked in practice for me is i have a good working relationship. I give my counsel and input privately. I offer this and have good conversations. I try to contribute constructively. I respect the Authority Congress deferred on that person. Including working with vice chair bar and his predecessor. I think that its the way it is supposed to work and that is appropriate. I believe that is what the law requires but i would not say it is a matter of complete deference. It is more that i have a role in presenting my and discussing or having an intelligent discussion about what is going on and why. That is my input but ultimately that person does get to set the agenda and get to take things to the board of customers and household authority over supervision. I wondered if you had any regrets or was there any decisions that may be right now in light of what has happened . Chair powell i have had a few, short. Who does not look back and think you could have done things differently . But you do not get to do that. My focus is over what you control. My great mentor used to always say control the control. We control is make the right assessment, figure out what the fixes are and implement them. I think vice chair barrs and use are excellent but we have to follow through. Megan megan castella with barons. Then the possibility of pausing at this meeting come up and how serious did that get considered . Im curious whether there were initial concerns about raising rates or what the discussions entail. Chair powell support for the 25 basis point rate increase was very strong across the board. I would say there are a number of people, and you will see this in the minutes. I do not want to try to do the headcount in real time. People talked about pausing but not so much at this meeting. There is a sense that we are much closer to the end of this than to the. As i mentioned, if you out of all the tightening that has gone often varies channels, feel like we are getting close or maybe there. That is going to be an ongoing assessment and we are going to look at those factors to determine whether there is more to give. Im curious how to interpret that. Is the bar higher now to raise rates next meeting or when a strong inflation and print be enough to push inflation again . Chair powell i cannot say. I think we have moved a wrong way long way fairly quickly. I think we can afford to look at the data and make a careful assessment. Nancy for the last question. Nancy Nancy Marshall gendler with marketplace. You mentioned a few times about the lessons you learned from the banking crisis that you will learn the right lessons. What are those lessons . I just would start with something that has changed. Which is the run on Silicon Valley bank was out of keeping with the speed of run through history. That, now, needs to be reflected in some way in regulation and supervision. Now that we know it is possible, no one thought those possible before i am not aware of anybody thinking this could happen quite so quickly. I think this will play through. It will be up to vice chair barr to really take the lead in designing the ways to address this. I think that is one thing. I guess i would just say that. We are obviously going to revisit. It is pretty clear to me that we need to strengthen both supervision and regulation for banks of this size. I think we are on track to do this as well. Can you be any more specific on stress take stress testing . Chair powell that is what vice chair barrs role is and he will take the lead on that. Thank you. Chair powell you. Thank you. Announcer Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell wrapping up remarks on Interest Rates and what this means for the economy along with other Monetary Policy. If you missed any part of this news conference, you can see it tonight at 8 00 p. M. On cspan, also cspan now, our free video app, or online at cspan. Org. Watch video on demand anytime online at cspan. Org and try our point feature. The timeline tl that uses marks to give you interesting habits of our key coverage. These points of interest anytime online at cspan. Org. Announcer list sunday, Philip K Howard wilbe our guest on indepth to take your calls on government and legal reform in era. He has written six books including the collapse of the common good, life without lawyers, and his bestseller, the death of common sense. Join the live conversation with attorney and author Philip K Howard, sunday at noon eastern on book tv and cspan 2. Announcer next, a look into the challenges of accessing Mental Health services. Members of the Senate Finance committee here from physicians and Mental Health advocate