Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans told CNBC, “There are lags in monetary policy and we have moved expeditiously. We have done three 75 basis point increases in a row and there is a talk of more to get to that 4.25% to 4.5% by the end of the year, you’re not leaving much time to sort of look at each monthly release. ”

“I still believe that our consensus, the median forecasts, are to get to the peak funds rate by March — assuming there are no further adverse shocks. And if things get better, we could perhaps do less, but I think we are headed for that peak funds rate,” Evans said.

“That offers a path for employment, you know, stabilizing at something that still is not a recession, but there could be shocks, there could be other difficulties,” he added.

San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly told WSJ that “I don’t expect a sharp V-shaped recovery” in the US economy after the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, she said “I expect something more like negative quarters of growth throughout 2020, and then a gradual return to positive growth in 2021.”

Daly remains “optimistic” that Fed can achieve the dual mandate of full employment and price stability. “But it’s going to take some time”. For now, Fed remains committed to keeping rates at rock-bottom levels until after the coronavirus passes.

Daly’s comment was a big contrast to St. Louis Fed President James Bullard. Bullard said yesterday there is “no reason” the economy can’t come back in a “V-shape” rebound. He added that a robust recovery can happen if it’s “managed appropriately”.

In CBS’s 60 Minutes show, Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated that current interest rates are “appropriate” while inflation is “muted”. He also described the current rate setting as “roughly neutral”. Fed is patient regarding policy adjustment and that means “we don’t feel any hurry to change our interest rate policy”.

On the economy, he said “the outlook for the U.S. economy is favorable.” And, “the principal risks to our economy now seem to be coming from slower growth in China and Europe and also risk events such as Brexit.”

Powell added that “what’s happened in the last 90 or so days is that we’ve seen increasing evidence of the global economy slowing down” and “we’re going to wait and see how those conditions evolve before we make any changes to our interest-rate policy.”

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St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said if economy evolves as expected, current interest rate will be appropriate through 2019. Balance sheet reduction program will end this autumn. “These events mark the end of monetary policy normalization in the U.S.”

Bullard said the normalization campaign has been “largely successful”. Nominal short-term interest rates have been raised from near-zero levels, and the size of the Fed’s balance sheet has been reduced as the economic expansion has continued.

Going forward, the FOMC may elect to adjust monetary policy going forward. However, Bullard said that will not be “part of an ongoing normalization strategy”. Adjustments will be “in response to incoming macroeconomic data”.

On yield curve inversion, Bullard said “yield curve information is not infallible, and inversion could be driven by other factors unrelated to future macroeconomic performance”.”Nevertheless, the empirical evidence is relatively strong. Therefore, both policymakers and market professionals need to take the possibility of a meaningful and sustained yield curve inversion seriously.”

Press release on Bullard’s presentation.