Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee has underlined the need to wait for policy action on tariffs before jumping to any “action,” while agreeing with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent‘s comments on the central bank’s independence being like a “jewel box” that needs to be preserved.
What Happened: Goolsbee, while talking about preemptive rate cuts on CNBC, reaffirmed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell‘s stance on waiting for further policy before altering the path of the monetary policy.
“We’re getting retaliation announced, we’re talking about revisiting the tariffs in 90 days, and we don’t know what the impact on the supply chain is going to be. So I think we want to be a little more the steady hand and trying to figure out the through line before we’re jumping to action,” said Goolsbee.
President Donald Trump called for preemptive rate cuts in a Truth Social post on Monday and heavily criticized Jerome Powell, calling him “Mr. Too Late”.
Meanwhile, his cabinet also hinted at ways to fire Powell from his position as the Fed Chair. …