00:00Something really topical, and I saw this yesterday, Kevin Hassett on CNBC offered some criticism of a New York Fed
00:07study on tariffs.
00:08Do you have thoughts you wanted to share about that?
00:10Sure. You know, I mentioned all 12 reserve banks have independent research departments that are always studying the economy,
00:16and sometimes people put out results that point one way, and another reserve bank will put out results that point
00:21the other way.
00:22This is how we're trying to get better and learn about the economy, by having this breadth of opinions.
00:27I thought that Director Hassett's comments, though, you know, he went on and he said that he disagreed with the
00:33results
00:34and the researchers should be punished or they should be disciplined for their conclusions.
00:40I think this is just another step to try to compromise the Fed's independence.
00:45Over the last year, we've seen multiple attempts to try to compromise the Fed's independence,
00:50including in December when the Department of Justice served a subpoena to the Board of Governors over some building expenses.
00:58It's really about monetary policy, that, you know, we are doing our very best to make the best assessment of
01:04the economy based on data and analysis.
01:07If you look all around the world, every advanced economy in the world has an independent central bank.
01:14The reason they have an independent central bank is because politicians of conservative and liberal
01:20would rather have monetary policy that serves their political needs in the moment.
01:24And what economies all around the world have learned is that monetary policy decisions,
01:30the people are better off over the long run if monetary policy is based on data and analysis,
01:36not on short-term political gains.
01:38And I know that my colleagues at the Fed and I are committed to continuing to make the best decisions
01:42we can.
01:43We're not perfect.
01:44We don't get it all right.
01:45But we're going to do our best to make the best decisions we can based on data and analysis
01:49and not let anything else distract us from that.
01:52We're going to do our best to make the best decisions we can based on data and analysis we can
01:52based on data and analysis we can based on data and analysis we can.
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