After three cuts to its key interest rate last year, Federal Reserve officials, led by Chair Jerome Powell, have signaled that they are in a new phase of watching and waiting. They'd like to see inflation fall further and gauge what impact that new policies from President Donald Trump, particularly tariffs, will have on the economy before they reduce borrowing costs further.
One of those officials, Austan Goolsbee, is president of the Fed’s Chicago branch. In an interview with The Associated Press, Goolsbee said in an interview on Feb. 7 that he expects inflation to decline and thinks the job market is stable. If tariffs don’t worsen inflation, rate cuts could resume, he added.
