00:00What we hear when we talk to business leaders here in Northwest Arkansas, but in other parts of the district also, is we hear businesses trying to figure out how to manage uncertainty.
00:14And they're trying to manage uncertainty about their supply chains, and they're trying to manage uncertainty about their inventories.
00:22You hear a lot of businesses building inventories, trying to manage their inventories, trying to manage the timing of their supply chains.
00:29And businesses having uncertainty about the inflation rate, what's going to be the inflation rate for their inputs and for their outputs.
00:39And there was a great chart that Courtney put up that showed exactly that a minute ago.
00:44And so I think businesses are, management teams are having to exert a little extra effort in terms of managing this uncertainty.
00:54But that's what makes good management teams good management teams.
00:57And I have confidence that throughout the district and throughout the U.S., management teams will be able to manage through this uncertainty.
01:06But there is a lot of uncertainty facing them.
01:09As we saw in one of the charts that Courtney put up earlier, expectations of inflation are rising for businesses and for consumers.
01:19I'll let Jeff answer the consumers part.
01:21I think you've been asking about that.
01:22But on the business side, there is also a higher expectation of higher prices going forward for inputs and for outputs.
01:30I'm watching that very carefully for consumers and for businesses because we at the Fed don't want short-term inflation expectations to rise to such a level that they could seep into long-term inflation expectations, which would make our job harder in terms of achieving maximum employment and price stability.
01:54And, you know, we're focused on, you know, we're focused on not allowing that to happen.
02:00So those are the challenges that I see.
02:03And that's how they reflect back onto what our job is at the Fed.
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