A policy that on average would hold the inflation rate below 2 . That is not our policy. We want to see the inflation rate get back to 2 as rapidly as we can. But there are lags in the impact of Monetary Policy on the economy and if we waited until inflation was back to 2 and that would probably mean that unemployment had declined well below our estimates of the natural rate and only then did we start to begin to you know, the word tighten Monetary Policy i dont think is really right because we have an immensely accommodate testify Monetary Policy in place. So let me say just to begin to diminish the extraordinary degree of accommodation for Monetary Policy we would be overshoot we would likely overshoot substantially our 2 objective and we might be faced with then having to tighten policy in a way that could be disruptive to the real economy and i dont i dont think thats a desirable way to conduct policy. Gina, bloomberg news. You mentioned earlier that there is always going to be some uncertainty in the Global Economy. Yet it seems that uncertainties are what kept you from hiking this month. You know, how do you communicate to markets what is its kind of uncertainty that keeps you from lifting rates and what is the kind of uncertainty that you can overlook and move in spite of . So thats a very hard question and, you know, its why we come together and have very careful evaluations of a wide range of factors, but at the end of the day what were focused on are two things, the path for employment and whether or not we feel confident that we are on a road that will take us to our maximum employment objective and whether or not we see the risks around attaining that as balanced. Of course, there will be uncertainty around it. And whether or not we have reasonable confidence that inflation will over the medium term go back to 2 . And its really through that filter that were trying to look at uncertainty. Of course, there are many uncertainties in the Global Economy, but we are asking ourselves how economic and financial developments in the Global Economy affect the risk to our outlook for our two goals and whether or not they create unbalanced risks that we want to wait to resolve to some extent. Peter barns, fox business. Could you talk a little bit more specifically about what foreign developments you discussed in the meeting today, what you are concerned b we all assume it might be china, that was in the july minutes. Are you concerned about the chinese economy slowing, the markets there . Do you have any concerns about the european economy . And then related to stock markets, could i ask you how you feel about u. S. Equity markets right now because you did talk about your concerns about them back in may, you saw they were generally quite high and were worried about potential dangers in u. S. Equity market valuations, now equity prices have pulled back. Thank you. So with respect to Global Developments, we reviewed developments in all important areas of the world, but we focused particularly on china and emerging markets. Now, we have long expected as most analysts have, to see some slowing in chinese growth over time as they rebalance their economy and they have planned that and i think there are no surprises there. The question is whether or not there might be a risk of a more abrupt slow down than most analysts expect, and i think developments that we saw in Financial Markets in august in part reflected concerns that there was down side risk to chinese Economic Performance and perhaps concerns about the deftness in which policymakers were addressing those concerns. In addition we saw a very substantial downward pressure on oil prices and Commodity Markets and those developments have had a Significant Impact on many emerging market economies that are important producers of commodities, as well as more advanced countries, including canada, which is an important trading partner of ours, that has been negatively affected by declining modity prices and declining Energy Prices. There are a lot of countries that are net importers of energy that are positively affected by those developments, but emerging markets, important emerging markets have been negatively affected by those developments. Weve seen in significant outflows of capital from those countries, pressures on their Exchange Rates and concerns about their performance going forward. So a lot of our focus has been on risks around china, but not just china, emerging markets more generally and how they may spill over to the United States. In terms of thinking about financial developments and our reaction to them, i think a lot of the financial developments were really so we dont want to respond to market turbulence, the fed should not be responding to the ups and downs of the markets and it is certainly not our policy to do so, but when there are significant financial developments its incumbent on us to ask ourselves what is causing them. And of course while we cant know for sure, it seemed to us as though concerns about the Global Economic outlook were drivers of those financial developments and so they have concerned us in part because they take us to the Global Outlook and how that will affect us. And to some extent, look, we have seen a tightening of financial conditions during, as i mentioned, during the intervening period. So the stock market adjustment combined with a somewhat stronger dollar and higher risks does represent some tightening of financial conditions. Now, in and of itself its not the end of story in terms of our policy because we have to put a lot of different pieces together. We are looking at, as i emphasized, a u. S. Economy that has been performing well and impressing us by the pace at which it is creating jobs and the strength of domestic demand. So we have that, we have some concerns about negative negative impacts from Global Developments and some tightening of financial conditions. Were trying to put all of that together in a picture. I think importantly we say in our statement that in spite of all of this we continue to view the risks to Economic Activities in labor markets as balanced. There is a lot of different pieces, different cross currents, some strengthening the outlook, some creating concerns, but overall no significant change in the Economic Outlook. Im with reuters. Just so piggyback on the global considerations as you say the u. S. Economy has been growing. Are you worried that given the global interconnectedness, the low inflation globally, all of the other concerns that you just spoke about that you may never escape from this zero lower bound situation . So i would be very i would be very surprised if thats the case. That is not the way i see the outlook or the way the Committee Sees the outlook. Can i completely rule it out . I cant completely rule it out. But really thats an extreme down side risk that in no way is near the center of of my outlook. Michael mckee from Bloomberg Radio and television. If the economy developments as the summer of Economic Projections suggest to you we will see improvement in labor market but it wont push inflation up any faster. Im wondering what the argument is for raising rates this year as suggested by the dot plot because even allowing for long and variable lags you are not forecasting an inflation problem that would seem to suggest the need for a steeper and faster rate path for at least a couple of years. So if we maintain a highly accommoda accommodate tive Monetary Policy from here and the economy performs as we expect, namely its strong and the risks that are out there dont materialize, my concern will be that we will have much more tightening in labor markets than you see in these projections and the lags will be probably slow, but eventually we will find ourselves with a substantial overshoot of our inflation objective and then we will be forced into a kind of stop go policy. We will have pushed the economy so far it will have become overheated and we will then have to tighten policy more abruptly than we like. Instead of having slow steady growth, improvement in the labor market and continued improvement and good performance in the labor market, i dont think its good policy to have to then slam on the brakes and risk a downturn in the economy. Mic derby with dow jones news wires. One of your colleagues in the dot plots said they would like to see negative Interest Rates. I didnt expect to see that. What do you make of negative Interest Rates as a potential source of new stimulus if the fed were to have to do something more as opposed to maybe going to qe . Does negative Interest Rates have any part should it be part of the feds tool kid essentially . Let me be clear that negative Interest Rates was not something that we considered very seriously at all today. It was not one of our main policy options, but one participant in the committee would like to see additional accommodation is concerned by the inflation outlook and things that we need additional stimu s stimulus, additional accommodation to provide that and propose doing so by moving Interest Rates negative. Thats something weve seen in several european countries. Its not something we talked about today. Look, if i dont expect that were going to be in the path of providing additional accommodation, but if the outlook were to change in a way that most of my colleagues and i do not expect, and we found ourselves with a weak economy that needed additional stimulus, we would look at all of our available tools and that would be something that we would evaluate in that kind of context. Marty, associated press. In july when you were talking to us you said that you, yourself, expected to see the first rate hike before the end of the year. Is that still your expectation . And also when you talked about the developments in Financial Markets and what caused the august turbulence you mentioned china and other things you did mention the prospects of a fed rate increase. Do you think that played a role as well . So you asked me about my own expectation and id say i dont want to i speak on behalf of the committee and tried to explain Committee Decisions and we dont identify who is who in terms of our projections of the funds rate and i dont want to change that and have the focus be on my on my personal views on the path. You know, i have characterized the Committee View as a fork you know, a forecast that will likely if it prevails, if thats how the economy evolves, call for a funds rate increase later this year and i think thats a fair summary of the committees assessment of things. You asked me i think also about uncertainty about our own policies no not uncertainty, just the fact that the market turbulence a lot of people said part of it was a concern was the fed was about to raise Interest Rates. You didnt mention that as one reason for so i think the main drivers of the turbulence have been concerns about the Global Outlook. Thats how i read t but i know that of course there is uncertainty about fed policy. As i mentioned, were well aware that there has been a huge focus on the decision today and i would ask you to appreciate that there are a lot of cross currents in economic and financial developments that we need to take into account in deciding on what the appropriate course of policy is and we dont make continuous decisions every single day about our policy, we meet periodically, we do our darndest to pull together the best analysis we can and to exchange views and to arrive at Committee Decisions. I do understand that during this inter meeting period that every word that an fomc member has said has been parsed for its potential implications for what our decision will be. I think its you know, thats an unfortunate state of affairs, but i understand and i think its natural when you are at a point when conditions may be falling in place for there to be a shift in policy. Its natural that that should happen and it does to some extent contribute to uncertainty in Financial Markets. Michelle ferry, bbc news. You talked a lot about the strong dollar. I wondered do you see your policy actions affecting the dollar . Is it something you consider when you are making policy decisions . So Monetary Policy, u. S. Monetary policy, is directed toward trying to achieve the goals that congress has laid out for us. When we when Monetary Policy tightens and Interest Rates rise it commonly is the case either when it happens or in expectation, the expectation that that is coming Interest Rate differentials globally do tend to reduce capital flows that have impacts on Exchange Rates. So Monetary Policy often has some affect on the Exchange Rate and its not in my view the main channel by which Monetary Policy works. Its one of a number of different channels by which Monetary Policy works, but it does have some impact on Exchange Rates and of course, yes, we need to take that into account. Greg rob from market watch. I want to see if you would shift gears a little bit and talk about the Housing Market. You say in the statement the Housing Market has improved. How much are you counting on the Housing Market for growth going forward, especially since the Committee Sees rates rising . Thanks. So we are envisioning further improvements in the Housing Market. It remains very depressed. Housing starts below levels that seem consistent with underlying demographics, especially in an economy thats creating jobs and we have lots of people who are still doubled up and demand for housing should be there and should materialize as the job market improves and Income Growth improves. So are we counting on it . Housing is now a very small sector of the economy. It is not the driver of it is not the key driver in my own forecast of ongoing improvements in the u. S. Economy. It plays a supporting role, but Consumer Spending is the main driver, bolstered by, you know, decent outlook for investment spending, but i would continue to expect housing to improve and, remember, we are envisioning if things go as we anticipate a pretty gradual path of increases in short term Interest Rates over time. To some extent thats already embody yeed in longer term rates. On the other hand as time passes and we move beyond the window in which short rates are zero, it will be natural for long rates to rise some and of course, we recognize that the Housing Market is sensitive to mortgage rates. It is an important factor. But thats something that of course we are taking into account and thinking about whats the appropriate path of policy. Nancy marshall with marketplace. You mentioned you have gotten a lot of unsolicited advice, the folks outside, but there is another side that says the fed should raise Interest Rates because keeping rates so long for so long has actually exacerbated the wealth gap. Do you think the fed has widened the wealth gap with its low Interest Rate policy, these people say low Interest Rates mainly benefit the wealthy . Well, i guess i really dont see it that way. It is true that Interest Rates affect asset prices, but they have complex effect through Balance Sheets, through liabilities and assets. To me the main thing that an accommodate testify Monetary Policy does is put people back to work. And since income inequality is exacerbated by having high unemployment and a weak job market that has the most profound negative effects on the most vulnerable individuals, to me putting people back to work and seeing a strengthening of the labor market that has a disproportionately favorable effect on vulnerable portions of our population, thats not something that increases income inequality. There have been a number of studies that have been done recently that have tried to take account of many different ways in which Monetary Policy acting through different parts of the transmission mechanism affect inequality and theres a lot of guesswork involved and different analyses can come up with different things, but a pretty recent paper thats quite comprehensive concludes that the that fed policy has not exacerbated income inequality. John car with politico. What role did a possible Government Shutdown this year play in your decision today to delay the rate hike . And what would you say to lawmakers who are pursuing the strategy yet again . Well, it p