Public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. Federal reserve board chair Jerome Powell outline the Central BanksMonetary Policy before the Senate Banking housing and urban Affairs Committee. He also talked about the state of the u. S. Economy, inflation, Interest Rates, and bank Capital Requirements. This is to 15. Thank you, hows urban Affairs Committee will come to order. Give it again, you can certainly do that. The fed has immense power in shaping our economy. Your job is clear. Promote stable prices and maximum employment. Today, the cost of living is still far too expensive for most americans. The fed has only one tool available to fight those high prices. Interest rates. That tool does nothing to address the real cost, the real cause for why costs remain too high. Corporations price gouging to boost profits and make their shareholders richer. High rates dont force higher Interest Rates dont force corporations to lower their prices, but high Interest Rates are raising housing costs, hindering wage growth, stifling Small Businesses. We all know that. Now is the time for the fed to decide if its going to make good on its commitments to workers and to their families by lowering Interest Rates by protecting our Financial System from wall street executives who have used their wealth and their power to influence Economic Policy and avoid accountability for their, excuse me, for their risky bets. Excuse me. Keeping rates to thank you. Keeping rates too high for long, for too long strangles the economy. No one wants this. It makes it harder for Small Businesses to expand and hire more workers, undermining drop creation. Higher rates also stifle overdue investments that are creating high quality, good paying jobs, and that are necessary for us to remain the most competitive and innovative economy in the world. High Interest Rates are raising housing costs, higher and higher for families. Families already facing a tough market with too few options and too high prices. I hear from so many ohioans who feel trapped. Those who rent feel like theyll never be able to afford to buy. Those who already own their homes feel like theyll never be able to afford a larger one if they decide to grow their family. If theyre fortunate enough to have an Interest Rate from a couple years ago, they obviously dont want to give it up. That limit their choices, it limits the housing supply, and by driving up construction costs, higher rates make it even harder to build new apartments and homes. So we have even less supply at exactly the same time when its harder to afford a mortgage. Families are stuck delaying the purchase of their first home, and rent or renting for longer. That cycle drives rents up even further. Americans pay a steep price for higher Interest Rates, continued high rate are not going to make life less expensive for workers and their families. We know why prices are high years after supply chains have improved. Its the same cause of so many of the problems in our economy. Corporations want bigger profit to reward their executives. In 2022, at the peak of inflation, corporate profits soared to historic levels. Thats not hyperbole, thats fact. Corporate profits soared to historic levels. As you know where those profits went, right into the pockets of their top executives. That same year, the largest multinational corporations gave out nearly 1. 5 trillion, 1. 5 trillion in stock buybacks and dividends. Americans today pay more for groceries than they have in 30 years. Ohioans every time you go to a Grocery Store, ohioans pay for Corporate Executives bonuses and stock buybacks. Every time you go to the Grocery Store, Grocery Shoppers are paying for Corporate Executive bonuses and stock buybacks. The biggest corporations are always finding new ways to charge people more to increase their profits. Restaurants, big stores are experimenting with electronic price tags so they can change prices constantly, making it easier to sneak prices up little by little, making it harder for people to comparison shop and find their store, find the store with the lowest price. Many Companies Increase their profits by charging more for less. The media started calling it shrinks elation. Senator casey, our colleague from pennsylvania, has particularly been a leader pointing this out. A bottle of gatorade used to be 32 ounces, now its 28 ounces. But the price hasnt gone down. If anything, its gone up a bit. Its why insurance legislation would stop that kind of deceptive corporate practice. The kind of solution we need to take on corporate price gouging has nothing to do, mr. Chairman, as you know, with higher Interest Rates. The fed doesnt only set Monetary Policy. You also make the rules that keep our Banking System safe and sound and consumers money safe. Thats some positive development. Mr. Chair, since the last time you testified in june, like the update to the Community Reinvestment act. Thank you for your work on this. This took years of listening carefully to all stakeholders. It was long overdue. Well be watching to make sure you implement this quickly so banks are fulfilling the purpose of the Community Reinvestment act. I spoke to ohio bankers yesterday, most of them small banks. They understand the importance of this. You also issued an updated Capital Requirements proposal called also three, the subject of much discussion in this committee. Strong Capital Requirements, how we ensure if wall street bets dont pay off, shareholders and investors are on the hook, not taxpayers. Also many examples in this committee, in this congress, in this country of Taxpayers Holding the bag for corporate misfeasance and malfeasance and greed. We need these guardrails in place. I urge you remain committed to protecting the public, despite the massive amount of money big banks and their lobbyists are spending to try to kill, trying to kill these taxpayer protections. Lets finish the job, lets finalize basel three. Last years Bank Failures also demonstrate the dangers of letting the banks chip away at rules and oversight. Its entirely predictable. Bankers desperate to increase their already massive profits take big risks that undermine our economy. When things go wrong, Bank Executives come to regulators with their hands out, accepting no responsibility. Its why Congress Must finish the job and pass our bipartisan recoup act. Senator scott and i worked on 212 in this committee to hold senior Bank Executives accountable when they gamble with customers money. When the big, biggest banks exercise special privilege, they do so at the peril of our broader economy. Weve seen that too many times. We know thats the source of so much thats wrong in this country. Big corporations using their power and influence to write the rules of our economy to benefit of them and their executives and their investors, to the detriment of everyone else. Its why i stand up for workers, and why i stand up for their right to organize. Its why i stand up to take on railroads and Drug Companies and the biggest inks and corporations who, time and time again, try to rewrite the rules to increase their profit margins. Chair powell, i look forward to hearing from you today. Thank you. How the fed, and how the fed will work to promote an economy where everyone who wants a good job has the opportunity to find one. Senator scott . Thank you. Chair powell, thank you for coming this morning. Good morning. Appreciate you being here. Certainly three days, march 10th, itll be the one Year Anniversary of the failure of the Silicon Valley bank. Sab marked the Third Largest bank failure in u. S. History, and certainly the largest since the 2011 2008 financial crisis. I said it many times before and ill say it again today that there are three major components to stb failure. First, the bank was rife with mismanagement. Second, there was a clear supervisory failure, and our regulators were certainly asleep at the wheel. And third, president bidens reckless spending caused record high inflation, which resulted in drastic Interest Rate hikes and tremendous loss. When you print and spend trillions of dollars at the end of covid, we should not be surprised that we have record high inflation. Record high inflation translates into today, still, 40 higher for gas for your car. 30 higher for your food. But he present higher for your energy costs. Devastation the average american is facing because of biden onyx is undeniable, but certainly measurable. So im glad to spend some time talking about the state of our economy, an economy that has been ravaged, as ive just spoken about, by inflation, suffering under the weight of an open border and millions of Illegal Immigrants, and drowning in disastrous regulations. I hear from a constituent all the time that inflation and an unsustainable costofliving continue to impact their families. For far too many, the American Dream seems further and further out of reach than ever before. And frankly, the past three years of this administrations failed policies have landed a right in that spot. In fact, last month, treasury secretary yellin sat before this committee and attempted to spin a narrative of how strong the economy is, how welloff consumers are, and how much people have in the bank thanks to bidenomics. But in the midst of this, she also admitted that many prices are not going down. In fact, she said, and i quote, we dont have to get these prices down. Tell that to the mechanic working in south carolina. Tell that to the teacher trying to put gas in the tank. It is simply unacceptable. Because the truth is that american are now spending more of their income on food than they have in 30 years. The truth is that Housing Affordability remains at its lowest level in 40 years. But inflation isnt the only concern id like to raise. Id also like to address the Economic Impacts of ilLegal Immigration. During a recent interview on 60 minutes, you stated that over time, the u. S. Economy has benefited from immigration. Lets be clear. America is a nation of immigrants. No doubt. But when we talk about ilLegal Immigration today, we must also face the dire reality that our towns in our cities are suffering from the adverse impacts of ilLegal Immigration facilitated by the biden administrations open, unsecure, and unsafe southern border. Because of president bidens policies, weve seen over 7 million Illegal Immigrants cross our borders in just three years. By the time this election happens this year in november, the numbers suggest it could be as high as 10 million Illegal Immigrants coming into our country. So we cannot have an honest conversation about the benefits of Legal Immigration in our label force without also addressing the elephant in the room. Our country is strained. Our economy is strained under the weight of ilLegal Immigration. In fact, recent reporting has highlighted that cities and states across our country are struggling to keep pace. And some have been forced to cut Public Services to americans in order to fund the cost of feeding and housing Illegal Immigrants. One clear example i saw in new york city were the poorest kids in the city, minority kids in the city were stuck at home because the city was using the schools to house Illegal Immigrants. Another example. The city of denver recently announced that some of its employees may have their hours cut in order to reallocate funds toward the citys migrant crisis. How in the world is that fair to americans . Its not. We must get the ilLegal Immigration crisis under control, because if we dont, our local economies will continue to be crushed, and opportunities will continue to be stripped from our citizens and their families. Finally, as if inflation and the negative impact of ilLegal Immigration were not enough, the tsunami of regulatory red tape coming from our financial regulators further threatened Economic Opportunity across the border. For months, weve heard bipartisan criticism of the fed spousal three endgame proposal, which will respect lending and access to credit for those who need it the most. I was certainly pleasantly surprised to hear your comments about basel iii and your thoughts on its future, when 97 of the comments that you receive are negative, thats good news. Good news for the american consumer. Good news for entrepreneurs who would like to start a business, but do not have access to capital. Perhaps even good news for millennials who would love to become a firsttime homebuyer the opposition to basel iii comes from diverse array of interests, from community leaders, farmers to housing groups. Weve even heard opposition in this very room on this very committee from democratic senators. I look forward to hearing your testimony, and looking forward to asking some questions as well. Thank you, senator scott. Were here today, as we do every six months at least from chair of the Federal ReserveJerome Powell and Monetary Policy the state of our economy, please proceed. They give for your service to our country. Thank you, chairman brown, Ranking Member scott, and other members of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity to present the Federal Reserves semiannual Monetary Policy report today. Federal reserve remains squarely focus on our dual mandate to promote maximum employment and stable prices for the American People. The economy has made considerable progress toward these objectives over the past year. While inflation remains above the fomcs objective of 2 , it has eased substantially, and the slowing in inflation has occurred without a significant increase in unemployment. As labor market tightness has eased and progress on inflation has continued, the risks to achieving our employment inflation goals have been moving into better balance. Even so, the committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks, and is acutely aware that high inflation imposes significant hardship, especially on those least able to meet the higher costs of essentials, like food, housing, and transportation. The fomc is strongly committed to returning inflation to its 2 objective, restoring price stability is essential to achieve a sustained period of strong labor Market Conditions that benefit all. Ill review the current Economic Situation before turning to Monetary Policy. Economic activity expanded at a strong pace over the past year. For 2023 as a whole, Gross Domestic Product increased 3. 1 , bolstered by solid consumer demand and improving supply conditions. Activity in the housing sector was subdued over the past year, largely reflecting high Mortgage Rates. High Interest Rates also appear to have been weighing on business fixed investment. The labor market remains relatively tight, but supply and demand conditions have continued to come into better balance. Since the middle of last year, payroll job gains have averaged 239,000 jobs per month, and the Unemployment Rate has remained near historic lows at 3. 7 . Strong job creation has been accompanied by an increase in the supply of workers, particularly among individuals aged 25 to 54, and a continued strong pace of immigration. Job vacancies have declined, and nominal wage growth has been using. Although the jobs to workers gap has narrowed, labor demand still exceeds the supply of available workers. The strong labor market over the past two years has also helped narrow longstanding disparities in employment and earnings across demographic groups. Inflation has eased notably over the past year, but remains above the fomcs longer run goal of 2 . Total personal consumption expenditures prices, or pce prices, rose 2. 4 over the 12 months, ending in january. Excluding the volatile food and energy categor