Fed Is Increasingly Turning to Anecdotes to Gauge Economy
- Policymakers see field visits as key to understanding economy
- Even as growth data has been strong, anecdotes show slowing
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Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin asked for a show of hands: How many business people expect their price increases will be higher in the next year than before the Covid-19 pandemic? About two-thirds of the group raised hands.
“Come on guys, I’m just trying to control inflation,” Barkin said Nov. 14 to a group of 120 business people in the small town of Westminster, South Carolina. “The bad news I hear is the price genie has been taken out of the bottle, and it’s hard to put it back in.”