Odd Lots

Austan Goolsbee on the ‘Golden Path’ to a Soft Landing

Can the Fed achieve the mother of all soft landings?

Austan Goolsbee, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, during a Bloomberg Television interview at the Jackson Hole economic symposium in Moran, Wyoming, US, on Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the US central bank is prepared to raise interest rates further if needed and intends to keep borrowing costs high until inflation is on a convincing path toward the Fed's 2% target.Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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By Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway

October 5, 2023 at 6:36 PM UTC

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Can a soft landing be achieved? This is still a wide open question, given the highly uncertain macro environment. On the one hand, you have had a continued deceleration is most US inflation measures and the unemployment rate is below 4%. On the other hand, there are concerns over re-acceleration, more inflation, and a bond market where yields seem to be screaming higher day after day. On this episode of the Odd Lots podcast, we speak with Austan Goolsbee, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, who sees the possibility of, in his words, a "golden path" -- or the "mother of all soft landings." We discuss why and how it can be achieved, what the Fed can do to deliver a positive outcome, and what the market is telling us about the work that still needs to be done. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.