00:00We talk about the Fed as a unitary entity, but of course, the Fed is led by the Federal
00:06Open Market Committee.
00:08There are 12 voting members.
00:10You, despite being chair, only have one vote.
00:13And in normal times, there's a lot of consensus.
00:17Everyone's in agreement.
00:18Lately there's been some disagreement.
00:22There's been votes to keep interest rates the same, but some members of the FOMC have
00:28decided instead to vote to decrease interest rates.
00:32How does the disagreement on the FOMC make your job harder as you describe the path of
00:38economic policy going forward?
00:40You know, I don't think of it as making my job harder.
00:44I think it's, and I've found throughout my career, that when you have a really difficult
00:50problem, it helps to hear from all sides.
00:52And in a way, for example, when I was a private equity investor and I was looking at supporting
01:00a transaction that I wanted to do, I really wanted to hear from the smartest people, tell
01:06me why it's a bad deal.
01:07Tell me now before we do it.
01:09And I just think you don't really know how much you believe in something until you've
01:14had somebody really try to take it apart.
01:16So, I welcome that at the FOMC and at the Fed generally.
01:20And I think it helps us make better decisions.
01:23The Fed has had a tradition of governors not dissenting.
01:29But that's really not typical of other major central banks where there's more dissenting or
01:33I mean, they're different, depends on the central bank.
01:36And to me, what matters is, is the dissent thoughtful?
01:40Is it helpful?
01:41Does it help, does it express a point of view?
01:43Can you stand behind it and say, yeah, that's very thoughtful?
01:46And that kind of a thing is not bad.
01:49And it doesn't hurt with communications, you know.
01:51I think a situation like the present situation where, you know, there's sort of downside risk
01:57to the labor market which suggests keep rates low, but there's upside risk to inflation which
02:01suggests maybe don't keep rates low.
02:03You've got tension between the two objectives.
02:05And I think to try to expect unanimity at a time like that where it's really quite historically
02:11challenging, it would almost be misleading to be really confident in which way that should
02:16go.
02:17In fact, it's been said that confidence is what you feel before you really understand the problem.
02:22we're going to ask you to see the plan on it.
02:22We're going to ask you, and give them all the time because of you're looking at your plan on it.
02:22So, if you do not know what that might be, what works for us.
02:23We're going to ask you now for a couple of five years.
02:23And we're going to ask you to talk about that.
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