Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said in a CNBC interview, “you’re looking at a second half that is going to be very strong “. But the question is “how do we get through where we are today to that second half,” he added. “While it might be bumpy, I think there are backstops here, and in particular, fiscal would be a backstop, I think elevated savings are a backstop.”
Barkin “couldn’t tell” the day when Fed starts to scale back monetary stimulus, as it gave “outcome guidance not data guidance”. But ” this notion of ‘substantial further progress’ is the right way to think about it,” he said. “So there are scenarios certainly where we see strong recovery in unemployment and inflation but there are lots of scenarios where we don’t.”
