Fed’s Barkin: Lost data due to government shutdown would complicate understanding econ

  • It will be hard to figure out in the economy without data
  • Credit card data is a good alternative data set
  • I try to talk to businesses and workers what’s happening in the economy
  • Growth still seems ‘solid’ in the economy
  • It makes sense that lower and middle-income spending is adjusting to a slower pace
  • Growth will moderate from earlier this year
  • The data on consumer spending in the past few months has been ‘extraordinary’ but he expects it to slow
  • I’ve heard that the middle income consumer is starting to ‘re-prioritize’ spending
  • I’m expecting the next quarter to be ‘solid’ no ‘robust’
  • Pace of growth in Q1/Q2 is unlikely to continue
  • I think we will see demand softening
  • It’s very difficult to imagine inflation settling with growth above trend
  • We’ve unleashed people’s ability to use price as a lever
  • We’re still seeing wage pressure in the skilled trades
  • The last five months of inflation data have been encouraging

Barkin is a good indication of the core of the Fed and he clearly wants to see more data and is no rush to adjust the Fed’s stance.

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