Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan emphasized “we should be as aggressive as we can be while we are in the teeth of this pandemic, until we are convinced that we have weathered this pandemic.”

Though, “later this year, my own view is, we should at least be having an earnest discussion about when it’s appropriate to taper” the asset purchase program.

He expects the US economy to grow around 5% this year, with unemployment rate falling back to 4.50-4.75% from current level of 6.7%. The economy will then have made “substantial progress” towards Fed’s dual mandate.

By the time, “I think it’s a healthier for the U.S. economy and for markets to wean off these extraordinary actions and this extraordinary stimulus,” he said.

Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said with initial slow vaccine distribution. a full return to normal “won’t be until sometime this summer at best”. Though, “I expect the second half of the year to be robust as businesses finally pull the trigger and return to the workplace and consumers with elevated savings unlock pent-up demand,” he added.

Barkin also noted, “I am encouraged to see the rise in market indicators of inflation expectations. … That is what we are trying to support”. Recent rise in bond yields was part of a “reflation trade”, as investors were pricing in future rise in prices.

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said, it’s “probably going to be 2024 before we see interest rates start to rise,: That would come with “continuations of labor market improvement, unemployment falling to 4% and hopefully below that”

At that point, he said, “we can start to gently increase the federal funds rate, while it will still be accommodative in order to sort of achieve this overshooting and average 2% (inflation).”

St Louis Fed President James Bullard said in a presentation that “early arrival of vaccines suggests the health crisis will wane in the months ahead”. With vaccine distribution directed towards the most vulnerable, fatalities would also decline. Additionally, business have already learned to “produce at normal levels despite health restrictions”, contributing to rapid economic growth.

“Market-based inflation expectations have recovered from lows reached during March 2020,”he added. “TIPS-based breakeven inflation, based on CPI inflation measures, could move considerably higher and still be consistent with a PCE inflation outcome modestly above the 2% target.”

Bullard also told reporters, “the ingredients for higher inflation are in place”, with “very powerful fiscal policy”, a Fed that “wants to temporarily have inflation above target”, and the “economy poised to boom at the end of the pandemic”

Full presentation here.