Free Republic

NEW YORK—Both supply-side and demand-side factors are contributing to U.S. inflation right now, but most of the current price changes may be driven by pandemic-related shifts that could subside over time, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester said on Thursday. Policymakers need to distinguish short-term inflationary pressures from inflation that could be longer lasting when determining how to respond, Mester said during a panel organized by the European Central Bank “How much of that increase is driven by supply shocks and how much of it is driven by demand that would respond to monetary policy?” Mester said. An increase...

The Federal Reserve could well raise interest rates as soon as June, two top U.S. central bankers said on Friday, so long as economic data strengthens as expected from a dismal first quarter. That view—from the hawkish-leaning chief of the Cleveland Fed and from the centrist head of the San Francisco Fed—is at odds with the view of many traders, whose bets in the interest-rate futures markets suggest they have all but discounted a June rate hike and now expect the Fed to wait until December before raising rates for the first time since 2006. The Fed has kept interest...