US NEWS MONEY: Fed's Mester Says Central Bank Has Yet to Make a Dent in Inflation

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said Tuesday that even with a large amount of rate rises this year, the central bank has yet to get surging inflation under control and will need to press forward with tightening monetary policy.

“Unacceptably high and persistent inflation remains the key challenge facing the U.S. economy,” Mester said in a speech given before a gathering held by the Economic Club of New York. “Despite some moderation on the demand side of the economy and nascent signs of improvement in supply-side conditions, there has been no progress on inflation,” Mester said.
READ MORE

MARKET WATCH: Dow jumps nearly 500 points, U.S. stocks end sharply higher as earnings season heats up
As for rising interest rates, Charles Evans, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said Tuesday during a talk at the Economic Club of New York that the Fed could raise its benchmark rate by increments of 50 basis points at least a few times this years. Evans, who is not a voting member of the bank’s interest-rate setting panel this year, indicated that the fed funds rate could eventually top 3%.

READ MORE

Yahoo Finance:  NY Fed's Williams says it could be reasonable for taper to finish by mid-2022 - Yahoo Finance
"Assuming the economic conditions support the beginning of a taper soon, then there is a way to do this that I think would not disrupt markets at all and be relatively smooth and be done by the middle of next year," Williams told reporters after speaking during a virtual event organized by the Economic Club of New York. "But that's not been decided by the committee."

READ MORE 

REUTERS: Fed's Kashkari says variants are bigegest risk for recovery

Variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 post the biggest threat to the U.S. economic recovery, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari said on Thursday.

“The biggest risks that I see to the recovery are these variants,” Kashkari told the Economic Club of New York, noting the ability of one variant now thought to be dominant in parts of the United States to easily infect younger people.

READ MORE