Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan emphasized the importance of a cautious approach to tightening monetary policy amidst uncertainty, suggesting that a slower pace doesn’t diminish commitment to achieving inflation goals.

Logan stated in a conference, “when conditions are uncertain, you may need to travel more slowly. But a slower pace of tightening shouldn’t signal any less commitment to achieving the inflation goal.” She further noted the potential for nonlinear deterioration of financial conditions, advocating for smaller, less frequent rate hikes to mitigate this risk.

Logan also underscored the multifaceted nature of monetary policy’s impact. She said, “The restrictiveness of monetary policy comes from the entire policy strategy – how fast rates rise, the level they reach, the time spent at that level and the factors that determine further increases or decreases.”

Seaprately, New York Fed President John Williams highlighted the time lag between policy decisions and their full impact on the economy, underlining the importance of monitoring the economy’s behavior post-decision. “We’ve got to make our decisions and then watch what happens, get that feedback, see how the economy’s behaving,” Williams explained.

In another occasion, Chicago’s Austan Goolsbee, however, indicated it may be too soon to discuss rate cuts or changes to monetary policy. He said, “I think it’s far too premature to be talking about rate cuts and premature to be saying — even for the next meeting — are we going to pause? Are we going to raise? Are we going to cut.”

Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester signaled her cautious approach towards interest rate adjustments. She emphasized her desire for the policy rate to reach a level where the next policy change could be equally a potential increase or decrease.

Mester stated at a conference today, “The approach I’m taking is that I would like the policy rate to get to a point where, when I’m thinking about what would the next policy change be, I want it to be equally a potential increase versus a decrease.”

Mester further clarified her stance, indicating that once the desired policy rate is achieved, she envisions a period of stability. “When we get the policy to that rate, I think we’re going to be holding for a while in order to make sure that the interest rate is coming back down. So I don’t put it in terms of a pause, I put it in terms of a hold.”

However, she noted that current data doesn’t suggest that this rate has been reached yet. Expressing a need for more evidence of inflation trending downwards, Mester insisted on the importance of adhering to the current policy strategy. She said, “I need to see more evidence that inflation is still moving down. I think that we just have to stick with what we’re doing.”

Richmond Fed President Thomas said yesterday that he is unconvinced that inflation will taper off rapidly with only a marginal economic slowdown. Barkin stated, “You could tell yourself a story where inflation comes down relatively quickly … with only a modest economic slowdown.”

He quickly added, “But I’m not yet convinced … I do wonder whether we’re not going to need more impact on demand to bring inflation down to where we need to go.”

Barkin stayed open-minded about Fed’s policy direction at the upcoming June 13-14 meeting. Despite having raised the policy rate by 5 percentage points since March 2022, Barkin isn’t ruling out the possibility of another hike.

In terms of the labor market, Barkin noted the shift from what he described as “red hot” to merely “hot.” He asserted, “On the unemployment side, I think you could fairly say it’s moved from red hot to hot, right? There’s nothing about 3.4% unemployment that feels … cool.”

Despite the gradual effects of rate hikes beginning to show, Barkin emphasized that the job market remains robust and inflation persistent. He admitted, “I’m still seeing data that suggests a hot job market and enduring inflation,” leading him to believe inflation could persist longer than market measures suggest. Therefore, he concluded, “I’m still looking to ask myself the question whether we need to do more.”

Separately, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said the central bank probably has “more work to do on our end, to try to bring inflation back down,” adding that “we should not be fooled by a few months of positive data.”

In an interview with CNBC, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee noted that the full impact of the 500 basis points increase executed over the past year has yet to fully materialize. He expressed concern over the tight credit conditions that currently prevail and urged careful monitoring of the economic landscape.

Goolsbee mentioned that his support for a rate hike earlier this month was a “close call.” He stated, “The thing that made it a close call for me is this big question mark about what is going to be the impact of this on credit conditions.”

In an interview with CNBC, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic emphasized the importance of combating inflation, which he deems as “job No. 1”. He expressed his readiness to bear the cost necessary to achieve the Fed’s target, underscoring the need for a more aggressive stance on rate hikes given the current economic scenario.

Bostic stated, “What we’ve seen is that inflation has been persistently high, consumers have been really resilient in terms of their spending, and labor markets remain extremely tight. All of those suggests that there’s still going to be upward pressure on prices.” His comments highlight the ongoing pressures that may trigger further inflationary spikes.

He showcased leaning towards a proactive approach in dealing with inflation, stating, “If there’s going to be a bias to action, for me it would be a bias to increase a little further as opposed to cut.”

Bostic remained confident in Fed’s policy measures, asserting, “There’s still a lot of confidence that our policies are going to be able to get inflation back down to our 2% target.” He made clear Fed’s determination to ensure this target is met, even if it means holding off on rate cuts until well into 2024.