US PPI Misses Expectations - Will We Ever See Tariff-flation?

Industrial production in the United States increased by 0.3% in June compared to the previous month, rising more than analysts expected, the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors ...

Good morning and thank you for the invitation to join you here at the 20th anniversary celebration for Cuyahoga Community College’s Corporate College. I’m happy to recognize the impact of community colleges like Tri-C. These most outstanding institutions offer opportunity and a chance for businesses to collaborate with educators to deliver customized training for evolving needs. They give students of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds a chance to earn a degree, get certified for a current career, get back on track toward a goal, or start a new track altogether. They offer possibility, especially for nontraditional students. Tri-C’s student body exemplifies this, with nearly 80 percent of students enrolled part time while working and an average student age of around 26 years old. And I know personally that they offer support and encouragement. My oldest child recently wanted to get back on track toward his goal of getting a four-year degree. A community college offered the right bridge at the right time to help him do that. But a four-year degree isn’t everyone’s goal. Corporate College’s enduring success shows that. Its focus on ongoing professional training and entrepreneurship also aligns with two of the Cleveland Fed’s community development priorities: workforce development and small businesses, both of which I’ll discuss in more depth shortly. As we know, challenges in the community space abound. If only it was as simple as climbing into an old-fashioned telephone booth, dialing the right number…and being transported through space and time to the people who have all the right answers, just like Bill and Ted did on their most unprecedented journey. While it may not be quite that simple for us, I’d like to invite you all to join me on our own excellent community development adventure. Before I continue, I note that the views I present a Fed’s Hammack Makes No Comments on Monetary Policy or Economic Outlook in Prepared Remarks.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. I am here to discuss one of the most important resources that policymakers have: the lessons of history. In discharging my responsibilities at the Federal Reserve, I have been thinking a lot about history. Its study provides the opportunity to step out of the particular circumstances of today to inform our understanding of the core issues at the heart of financial regulation. While we must be attentive to new and even unprecedented challenges, experience shows that understanding the lessons of history gives policymakers a great advantage. Many of the decisions we face today have, in some form, been confronted by previous generations of policymakers. In these remarks, I want to discuss a particular pattern in the history of the financial system, which is the relationship between regulatory weakening and the economic and financial cycle of booms and busts. My intent is not to re-hash well-examined facts or to go over past historical episodes chapter and verse. Rather, I aim to offer a perspective on this historical throughline that focuses on the regulatory cycle. It's widely accepted that the economy and financial system experience cyclical booms and busts. Booms have historically been characterized by a multitude of good things. These can include fast economic growth, workers who had been sidelined entering the workforce and improving their lives, and financial innovations that often make credit or investments more readily available. At the same time, some of the characteristics of a boom economy, such as rapid increases in credit and in financial market activity, as well as greater risk-taking and leverage, can sow the seeds of busts. In busts, economic activity and lending contract and asset prices decline. This can lead to rapid deleveraging and dislocation throughout the financial system, which worsen the downturn, causing job losses and business closures, homes lost and lives upended. Fed's Barr warns that relaxing rules can create vulnerabilities. Fed’s Barr: Regulation Must Evolve in Step with Changes in the Financial System