ICYMI: Goolsbee says it’s worth wondering where we are on our restrictiveness scale

• Highlights what ‘seems to be a cooling of consumer spending’
• It’s worth wondering where we are on our restrictiveness scale
• If we get more ‘months’ like the last one on inflation, coupled with more weakening data then you have to start questioning where we should be on rates
• Optimistic we’ll see improvement in inflation data
• Hopeful that Fed will get more confidence that inflation is heading back to 2%
• In the second half of last year we had fantastic dual mandate performance …. at the start of this year we saw Inflation ticking back up and we’ve been trying to figure that out .. is that a sign of overheating or is that just a blip?

“If we get more months, like what we have just seen in the last month on inflation, coupled with slowing conditions in some of the other parts of the real economy, then you would have to start questioning should we remain as restrictive as we’ve been,” Goolsbee said on CNBC.

There is some talk that this was dovish and that’s weighing on the dollar but bonds are unmoved so I don’t buy that. This is in-line with what Goolsbee has said before and he’s stretching out a fairly long timeline to cuts here.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.