And then there was St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem in a speech at the Economic Club of New York raising a specter any presidential administration is loath to contemplate: stagflation. "An alternative and plausible scenario in which inflation ceases to converge, or rises, at the same time the labor market weakens must also be considered," said Musalem, a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee. Musalem said his base-case scenario is continuing slow improvement in inflation and a healthy labor market.

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