Economics
Fed Staff Suggest More Worry Over Financial Risk Than Powell
- Powell calls risks moderate, staff sees them as notable
- Official insists Powell agrees with staff’s overall appraisal
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Federal Reserve staff members gave a potentially more worrisome assessment of the risks to financial stability in the central bank’s policy meeting last month than the one presented publicly by Chair Jerome Powell.
Speaking to reporters on Jan. 27 after the Fed’s last policy making meeting, Powell called financial stability vulnerabilities overall “moderate.” Central bank staff gave a less sanguine assessment in their presentation at the January meeting, telling policy makers that vulnerabilities on balance were “notable,” according to the minutes of the gathering released on Wednesday.