Fed Chairman Powell testifies on economic outlook before Congress – 11/13/2019

as you help steer the economy through what in some ways are extremely challenging times as you have said in your testimony by some measures our economy is strong the national unemployment rate fell from 10 percent at its peak during the Great Recession to only 4.7 percent when President Trump took office and it has continued to fall it now stands at only 3.6 percent the economy has continued to add jobs now for a hundred and nine consecutive months more than nine years inflation remains low below the feds target wages are moving up though not as fast as we would like but it is weak in other ways but other measures tell a very different story GDP growth has slowed falling below two percent in the third quarter job growth is also slowing in fact it has lagged behind the last years of the Obama administration about thirty five thousand fewer jobs have been added per month during the first thirty three months of Trump than the last thirty three months of Obama manufacturing is in recession business investments have been shrinking for the past two quarters and productivity fell last quarter for the first time since 2015 some of these more troubling developments may be a sign of a possible into our decade-long economic expansion or a slow fade from the sugar high of the 2017 tax cuts but the most likely cause of economic uncertainty is the president's trade war this leads to a fundamental question how should the Federal Reserve Act when one of the major challenges facing our economy is the erratic behavior of our president so I won't ask you to answer that question but it's on every one's mind you have a extremely difficult job and not everyone has benefited from this economy and past months you have conducted a Federal Reserve listening tour called Fed listens and I want to thank you for taking the time to hear from Americans from all walks of life who experience our economy very differently as you know the economy as a whole can be very strong while entire segments of the US population struggle some regions still have not recovered from the Great Recession not all Democratic groups have shared equally in the economic growth of the past decade as members of Congress we need to serve all Americans you have shown that this is your concern too it used to be that a rising tide lifts all boats but that has become less true and we know that the tide lifts some boats much more than others that's why I have introduced legislation that would give us insight into whom the economy is working for my bill with a lot of my colleagues the measuring real income growth Act would require the Bureau of Economic Analysis to report GDP growth by income and and the top one percent alongside the top-line number it would tell us who is benefiting from economic growth and that takes me back to the fundamental question before Fed policy makers how low should unemployment go how does the Fed weigh the benefits of very low unemployment versus the risks of inflation we've had 11 straight quarters of an unemployment rate below what CBO tells us is a so-called natural rate of unemployment yet inflation remains uncomfortably remains comfortably below the Fed target rate which raises the question has the traditional relationship between unemployment and inflation weakened if it has then why is it downward price pressure from around the globe or increased market concentration in certain industries in the United States eroding a worker bargaining power or are there other factors in play and what if unemployment is extremely low is suggesting that we are at full employment but the unemployment rate for African Americans or Latinos remains much higher what if the unemployment rate for people in some communities are those who work in some occupations is stubbornly low these are questions with wide-ranging implications for both fiscal and monetary policy I look forward to your testimony and I yield back in our Chairman is here thank you very much for being here chairman Powell and I appreciate your patience with our scheduled votes in committee and on the floor are often difficult to predict welcome to the Joint Economic Committee Xan Ewell hearing with the chair of the federal reserve's Board of Governors chairman Pao I like to extend you a warm welcome I look forward to our discussion today our economy is finally recovered from the financial crisis of 2008 the unemployment has reached a 50-year low of 3.5% it reached that in September and most recently stood a 3.6 percent the share of working age adults with the job has returned mercifully to pre-crisis levels however despite this welcome return to normalcy within our economy and in in terms of employment measures many aspects of our economy remained unusual and particularly so for central bankers inflation remains persistently low in four of the past five quarters inflation has been below the Federal Reserve's two sent target Treasury yields also remain low with a 10-year borrowing rate of just 1.9 percent interest rates that were once considered extraordinarily low have become a long-run expectation these phenomena of low inflation at low long-term interest rates are not unique to the United States but rather they're echoed and most of the developed markets around the world today this moment brings with it some challenges such as building a framework for fighting recessions look in a low interest rate environment however it also brings some significant opportunities with inflation still in check we may have yet room to expand employment even further as ever it'll be important for the Federal Reserve Board to communicate how it addresses these challenges and these opportunities in this regard the greater transparency demonstrated by the Federal Reserve during your chairmanship mr. chairman is to be commended in particular the Fed has conducted a number of Fed listens events around the country including an historic conference held in June to hear feedback on current policy conduct as well as to better understand the effects of monetary policy at the local level not only will these initiatives promote trust and in the Federal Reserve and in its decision-making they'll provide important information relevant to monetary policy from Americans who do not always get a seat at that table and in the past haven't been able to understand how these things operate as as well as they are able to today I'll now introduce our witness mr. Pal is the 16th and current chairman of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System serving in that role since 2018 he first joined the Board of Governors in 2012 prior to his appointment of the board mr. Powell was a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center where he focused on federal and state fiscal issues mr. Powell previously served as an assistant secretary and is Undersecretary of the Treasury under President George HW Bush with responsibility for policy on financial institutions the Treasury debt market and related areas prior to joining the administration he worked as a lawyer and investment banker in New York City we thank chairman Powell for attending today's hearing and look forward to hearing his insights you're now recognized for your testimony mr. crome Thank You chairman Lee and vice-chair Maloney and members of the committee I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you today let me start by saying that my colleagues and I strongly support the goals of maximum employment and price stability that Congress has set for monetary policy we are committed to providing clear explanations about our policies and our actions Congress has given us an important degree of independence so that we can effectively pursue our statutory goals based on facts and objective analysis we appreciate that our independence brings with it an obligation for transparency and accountability today I will discuss the outlook for the economy and for monetary policy the US economy is now in the eleventh year of this expansion and the baseline outlook remains favorable gross domestic product or GDP increased at an annual pace of 1.9 percent in the third quarter of this year after rising at around a two and a half percent rate last year in the first half of this year the moderate third quarter reading is partly due to the transitory effect of the UAW strike at General Motors but it also reflects weakness and business investment which is being restrained by sluggish growth abroad and by trade developments these factors have also weighed on exports and in factoring this year in contrast household consumption has continued to rise solidly supported by a healthy job market rising incomes and favorable levels of consumer confidence and reflecting the decline in mortgage rates since late 2018 residential investment turned up in the third quarter following an extended period of weakness the unemployment rate was three point six percent in October near a half century low the pace of job gains has eased this year but remains solid we had expected some slowing after last year's strong pace at the same time participation in the labor force by people in their prime working years has been increasing ample job opportunities appear to have encouraged many people to join the workforce and others to remain in it this is a very welcome development the improvement in the jobs market in recent years has benefited a wide range of individuals and communities indeed recent wage gains have been strongest for lower paid workers people who live and work in low and middle income communities tell us many many of them at these fed listens events that the chair and vice-chair referred to tell us that many who have struggled to find work are now getting opportunities to add new and better chapters to their lives significant differences however persist across different groups of workers in different areas of the country unemployment rates for African Americans and Hispanics are still well above the jobless rates for whites and Asians and the proportion of people with the job is lower in rural communities inflation continues to run below the FOMC's symmetric 2 percent objective the total price index for personal consumption expenditures increased 1.3 percent over the 12 months ending in September held down by declines in energy prices core PCE inflation which excludes food and energy prices and tends to be a better indicator of future inflation was 1.7 percent over the same period looking ahead my colleagues and I see a sustained expansion of economic activity a strong labor market and inflation near our symmetric 2 percent objective as most likely this favorable baseline partly reflects the policy adjustments that we have made to provide support for the economy however noteworthy risks to this outlook remain in particular sluggish growth abroad and trade developments have weighed on the economy and posed ongoing risks moreover inflation pressures remain muted and indicators of longer-term inflation expectations are at the lower end of their historical range persistent below target inflation could lead to an unwelcome downward slide in longer-term inflation expectations we will continue to monitor these developments and assess their implications for US economic activity and inflation we also continue to monitor the risks to the financial system over the past year the overall set level of vulnerabilities facing the financial system has remained at a moderate level overall investor appetite for risk appears to be within a normal range although it is elevated in some asset classes debt loads of businesses are historically high but the ratio of household borrowing to income is low relative to its pre-crisis level and has been gradually declining in recent years the core of the financial sector appears resilient with leverage low and funding risk limited relative to the levels of recent decades at the end of this week we will be releasing our third financial stability report which shares our detailed assessment of the resilience of the US financial system turning to monetary policy over the past year weakness in global growth trade developments and muted inflation pressures have prompted the FOMC to adjust its assessment of the appropriate path of interest rates since July the committee has lowered the target range for the federal funds rate by three-quarters of a percentage point these policy adjustments put the current target range at one-and-a-half to two one and three-quarters percent the committee took these actions to help the US economy keep the US economy strong an inflation near our 2 percent objective and to provide some insurance against ongoing risks as monetary policy operates with a lag the full effects of these adjustments on economic growth the job market and inflation will be realized over time we see the current stance monetary policy as likely to remain appropriate as long as incoming information about the economy remains broadly consistent with our outlook of moderate growth a strong labor market and inflation near our symmetric two percent objective will be monitoring the effects of our policy actions along with other information bearing on the outlook as we assess the appropriate path of the target range for the funds rate of course if developments emerge that cause the material reassessment of our outlook we would respond accordingly policy is not on a preset course the FOMC is committed to ensuring that its policy framework remains well positioned to meet its statutory goals we believe our existing framework has served us well nonetheless the current low interest rate environment may limit the ability of monetary policy to support the economy we are currently conducting a public review of our monetary policy strategy tools and communications the first of its kind for the Fed with the US economy operating close to maximum employment and price stability now is an especially opportune time to conduct such a review through our Fed listens events we've been hearing a diverse range of perspectives not only from academic experts but also from representatives of consumer labor business community and other groups we will draw on these insights as we assess how best to achieve and maintain maximum employment and price stability we'll continue to report on our discussions in the minutes of our meetings and share our conclusions when we finish the review likely around the middle of next year in a downturn it would also be important for fiscal policy to support the economy however as noted in the Congressional Budget Office's recent long-term budget outlook the federal budget is on an unsustainable path with high end rising debt over time this outlook could restrain fiscal policy makers willingness or ability to support economic activity during a downturn in addition I remain concerned that the high and rising federal debt can in the longer-term restrained private investment and thereby reduce productivity and overall growth putting the federal budget on an unsustainable on a sustainable path would aid the long term vigor of the US economy and help ensure that policymakers have the space to use fiscal policy to assist in stabilizing the economy if it weakens I'll conclude with a few words on the technical implementation of monetary policy in January the FOMC made the key decision to continue to implement monetary policy in what we call an ample reserves regime in such a regime we will continue to control the federal funds rate primarily by setting our administered rates and not through frequent frequent interventions to actively manage the supply of reserves in the transition to the efficient and effective level of reserves in this regime we slowed the gradual decline in our balance sheet in May and we stopped it in July in response to the funding pressures in money markets that emerged in mid-september we decided to maintain a level of reserves at or above the level that prevailed in early September to achieve this level of reserves we announced in mid-october that we would purchase Treasury bills at least into the second quarter of next year and would continue temporary open market operations at least through January these actions are purely technical measures to support the effective implementation of monetary policy as we continue to learn about the appropriate level of reserves they do not represent a change in the stance of monetary policy thank you I will be glad to answer your questions thank you so much for your testimony chairman along with other senators voting and because the Fed chair needs to leave at 12:30 and a hard stop he is suggesting that we limit our questions to four minutes so that everyone gets a chance to question so I will start and then go to a representative Arshad and until the Chairman comes back so thank you the full unemployment rate is well below the feds long-run estimate of 4.2% measures of underemployment and long-term unemployment also are at a near decade low yet the unemployment rate for some groups is substantially higher for example the black unemployment rate at an historic low is still well above 5% is the economy at full employment or could a tighter labor market draw more people back into the workforce thank you so we're charged to achieve maximum employment and when we think about maximum employment we look at not just unemployment but also labor force participation we look at wages we look at you know many many data points and I would say that what we have learned and what will we continue to learn is that the US economy can operate at a much lower level of unemployment than many would have thought and it's probably not surprising they would be learning that now because we're at levels of unemployment that we haven't seen in 50 years for this is the first time that we've had unemployment meaningfully below 4 percent for 18 months so we are we're observing this and we're seeing as you point out that inflation is actually kind of moving sideways and wages are moving at a healthy clip but they're not moving up in a way that would be that would suggest that there are poor price pressures so I think we're very open to the idea I'm very open to the idea that we don't know where maximum employment precisely is we have to have significant humility when we make estimates of that and we've got to let the data speak to us and with the data are the data are not sending any signal that the labor market is so hot or that inflation is moving up or anything like that so I think what we've learned is that the current level of unemployment is consistent with with a strong labor market but it is not one that is bit as in any way presenting difficulties and it has many beneficial side effects including pulling people back into the labor market including wages moving up for people at the at the lower end of the wage spectrum so there's a lot to like about today's the labor market and we'd like to see it continue strong and we're using our tools to try to make that happen as you noted the economy has added jobs for one hundred nine consecutive months uh unemployment is well below four percent however the annual wage growth is just three percent and why is wage growth still below what we would expect with the strong labor market we might have expected wages to move up more this late in in a lengthy lengthy ongoing expansion particularly with very low unemployment and there there are a number of possible explanations for why that hasn't happened one is just that productivity has been lower so wages should ultimately equal inflation plus productivity and that's right about where we are we have three percent wage growth that debt accounts for about two percent two percent inflation at around one percent wage growth but there are there other possibilities one is just that they're still slack in the labor market that that can be part of the answer we don't know without any precede precision it also may be that the neutral rate of interest is lower than we've been thinking and that therefore our policy is less accommodative than we have been thinking so I think we're we're letting the data speak to us and you know carefully monitoring the situation and trying to get answers to that question some have said it's the increased concentration in different industries is giving employers unprecedented power and keeping wages down is that so I think I think there are a number of other sort of institutional possible explanations and trend explanations you could point to automation you could point to globalization you could point to concentration among industries you were over time US industries have tended to get more concentrated as the economy has matured you could also point to lower unionization so any of those any of those factors can well be playing and probably all they're playing some some role in in this in this what is a bit of a puzzle why we haven't seen more of an uptick in wages my time is expired representative Murphy report for four minutes thank you madam chairman and thank you for being here today Sherman hello I'd like to focus my questions today primarily on preparing for the next downturn whether it be three years from now five years from now whenever it comes historically speaking is the is the Federal Reserve positioned as well as that has been positioned in past recessions when the Federal Reserve was the primary go-to agency where the federal government said you know we need help from you to to stimulate the economy are we positioned there are we out of position well if you look at post-war typical post-war recessions where that what the Fed has done is it's cut interest rates and on average those those the amount of those cuts has been 5% or so so with the federal funds rate having peaked at about 2.4 percent and now being at about a little above one-and-a-half percent we don't have that kind of room and there are a couple of reasons for that just if you look at the hit longer-term interest rates which are not directly affected much by our policy they've just been declining for 40 years now and that is because of inflation being lower and under control and less volatile and also just the aging demographics means higher saving means more savings relative to investment and that puts downward pressure on interest rates so I think the new normal now is lower interest rates lower inflation probably lower growth and you're seeing that all over the world not just in the United States you're seeing it to a much greater extent in many parts of the world Network we're seeing it here so knowing that that is one of the main reasons we have really the basic reason why we are having this public review of our monetary policy framework to see if there are ways we can alter our our strategies our tools and our communications in ways that would make us more effective in this world where we're we're too close closer than we would like to 0 when we kind of run out of options so that's one thing fiscal policy will also be important though I mean I think from the standpoint of monetary policy we're looking hard at ways to make sure that we that we can use our tools even after rates go to zero ultimately fiscal policy has been a part of the counter-cyclical reaction as well though and next question the disruption and the repo market that took place in September anticipated not anticipated do you anticipate keeping the expansion at the level it is until you're sure that won't happen again well so anticipated or not it's a different world post crisis and really because of all the the expansion in our balance sheet and and well essentially what we've done now is we've now required financial institutions that have a lot more liquidity on their balance sheets so that the Fed doesn't have to run in and and with look with our own liquidity so that's and that's a I think a big benefit to the financial system but a lot of that liquidity is held in our reserves we used to manage the interest rate by keeping reserve scarce and we had a total of 20 billion right now we have in excess of 1.5 trillion in reserves and so that means that we're we're trying to find that level as we allowed the balance sheet to shrink where reserves would become scarce and there was really no way to know I think the data that we had suggested that we were not close to that point until September I think we're still very much looking at what happened in September but I think we learned in September that we needed to port to make sure that reserves didn't go under that level in bed were added in mid-september which is a little bit shy of one and a half trillion so that's really what we're what we're doing it's it's technical I think we have it under control we're prepared to continue to learn and adjust as we do this but it's a it's a process I would say it's one that doesn't really have any implications for the economy or for the general public though Thank You representative beauty for four minutes thank you madam vice chair into the chamber and Thank You chairman Powell for being here we have four minutes I've got three questions I want to try to get through one one the CRA want to Inventure capital and one on climate change the the first one on the CRA as we've talked about is very important to me I know recently that the feds and the Office of the common currency in the fdic have all been working on a proposal to revamp that 1977 CR a it is my understanding that they wanted to do a joint but we're not sure if one of the agencies would go along CRA is very important to me into my 3rd congressional district in Ohio like cross the nation because of the resources it puts back into communities and more importantly minorities communities tend to benefit do you have any insight or knowing where they are or if they're working together and will be able to meet that end of the year go so we strongly submit the mission of support the mission of CRA which is to assure credit availability in in the areas of that bank served particularly low and moderate income communities we think it's a good time to modernize given technological developments and all kinds of other developments we've been working very very hard with the other two bank agencies to try to find common ground and you know we're committed to making sure this reform actually makes puts us in a better place to serve the intended beneficiaries of CRA we haven't quite gotten there yet we're gonna keep trying though and and my hope is that we will ultimately be able to come together with a common answer which I think would be better for for everyone if we can do that okay my next question is the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco recently held a conference entitled the economics of climate change and I believe this was the first ever conference by the feds on climate change in the economy can you discuss how the Federal Reserve views the impact of climate change on our economy in - in monetary policy and how the feds view have evolved over time so I guess I would say climate change is an important issue but but not principally for for the Fed it's not it's bit really an issue that's can that's assigned to lots of other government agencies not so much to the Fed nonetheless over time it can it can affect affect us in some ways which I'll mention one just is that we require financial and the tuitions and financial market utilities look that you know the large utilities that are so fundamental to the financial system we require them to be resilient against all kinds of things including severe weather there's a link between severe weather and climate change so in a sense we're already to the extent severe weather is becoming more common we're already incorporating that into our supervision and we'll have to think ahead we're doing a lot of research in this area to think ahead about sort of from a risk management perspective our perspective is not we're not going to be the ones who decide society's response to that's going to be elected legislators not us in terms of monetary policy it doesn't have any near-term implication for monetary policy over time climate change could have effects but it's not something that we'd be considering okay and only because of my time my last question is there was a 20-18 report by Price Waterhouse that found that 80% of the venture capital investments went to just four states California New York Massachusetts and Texas I'm from the great state of Ohio and so I guess my question is startups throughout the rest of the country especially the Midwest are overlooked are there any thoughts on the fact that an overwhelming majority of the venture capitals go into four states what effect is this having on the region's like the Midwest I'd have to look at that study I think you know a company that's in San Francisco can invest in a company that's in Ohio though so I would hope that that that they're not just investing in companies in San Francisco but so we should maybe look at some partnerships and how that works I do think you know many of the successful companies in which venture capital firms invest are not located in those areas that some of them are but some are located anywhere in the country really where they're entrepreneurs okay thank you represent a Spiker for minutes thank you madam vice chairman um chairman Powell can I get asked I'm gonna more of a global question if you look at much of the data from the Fed from the BLS from others our society is actually in in many ways a sweet spot a do you agree with that B what do we do policy wise to stay there and for those of us up here how do we not screw it up and then how do we actually bias it towards the positive what would you do so it in as I mentioned 50-year low and unemployment inflation low and under control labor force participation ticking up consumer confidence high the outlook is good I think households generally are focused on according to the surveys focused on this healthy job market and wages going up so it's it's actually a very good place from that standpoint that's not to say that every community is benefited we know that there we know that that's not the case how do we keep it there so we the key to this get given the risks the risks that we see are slowing global growth and particularly weaker manufacturing and that affects US manufacturing so the key to keeping this going and to it continuing are that we keep job creation at a solid level that households retain their confidence that wages keep moving up that seems to be the engine that's driving the US economy forward at this time but I'm gonna I want to go longer-term with with an answer I mean the u.s. faces longer-term issues that really need your attention around labor force participation and productivity so those are the two things that we really we're we we you know in labor force participation we lag most other advanced economies and that's something we can do something about that really the Fed can't do much about it so it's about it's more about fiscal policy it's that support attachment to the labor force so much of the policy that we all engage in here could be pushing up labor force participation where right now what about sixty three point three that's right which for some of our models of testimony we had as a committee a couple years ago we didn't think we'd get that far but you we've demonstrated that there is slack out there could you touch on what we could do in that demographic headwind that is where we are in the United States to also encourage that labor force participation incentives for someone that's older to stay in the lab reports getting millennial males to actually start to equal millennial females in tie in the labor force I think what would you do there's a range policies and and they would appeal I think across the political spectrum some of them are about labor demand some about labor supply and I think many of them would work that's the great thing is and I think for you know for young males it's gonna be addressing the opioid problem it's going to be skills and training and internships we had a great meeting with a bunch of experts on internship products programs recently I think you're seeing older people stay in the labor force more and more their their participation is moving up but you also see I think there there are lots of programs which are pulling people for example women who've been out of the labor force back in after their kids are grown up you see you see that happening as places as well so I think there are just so many things that can be done and we again we lag just about every other wealthy country in the world in labor force participation for prime age workers this is not where we should be and I think there are things we can do about it in my last 27 seconds slight non sequitur okay with the dual mandate how often in your conversations with your economists do you get into the discussion of currency differentials and headwinds that actually creates both in export and capital coming into the country you know where we currency wise in your conversations you know exchange rates are one financial condition among many and it happens to be one that is assigned to the Treasury Department for management so they Treasury has full responsibility for for exchange rate policy we don't it's just another it's in all economic models when we change policy so it's just a model input it's just a model input it's in no way is it a principal driver of our of the way we think about policy or the way other central banks do thank you thank you mr. chairman Madame vice-chair thank you for four minutes Lois Franklin thank you madam chair thank you for being here mr. Powell I I want to read you something that's just been recently posted by the National Women's Law Center and get your comment on it I have a couple questions related to this so we've all heard about the gender wage gap women on the average make only 82 cents in average a man's dollar much worse for women of color but there are two sides to a family's budget the income that comes in and the expenses they pay out and new research is finding that in addition to the wage gap there is rising inequality on how quickly prices are rising for families struggling the most in the economy this concept known as inflation inequality means the kinds of products disproportionately consumed by Richard households think organic produce and name-brand drugs rose in price at a slower rate than the kinds of products consumed by low and moderate income households and just release research by Columbia University begins to quantify these impacts by updating poverty rates for an adjusted inflation index that accounts for inflation inequality and the article goes on to suggest that an appropriate course of action would be to Peck peg the federal poverty threshold to a higher rate of inflation given how many more people would be considered in poverty when looking at the expense size of the ledger I would just ask you whether or not any of this enters into any of your decision-making whether you have any research on this or any comment on this it's an interesting so I did see that research which showed that so different groups of people buy different baskets of goods and in principle inflation can be higher or lower if this was a piece of research that showed that the basket of goods that are bought by people to lower end of the income spectrum it has experienced higher inflation over time so in that the implication of that would be that their real incomes are even lower than we think so I'd like to see a lot more research on that that's that's an interesting recent paper that's getting a lot of attention right now there is a there's no definitive answer there's another there's a series that I guess the government currently conducts first for consumer price inflation that looks at a basic basket of goods that finds a much smaller difference nonetheless it's an important issue that needs further research is that something that you would be doing or you think somebody else should be doing that research well the we our researchers would do it but you would see you attend to the you know the the agency whoever does CPI is that the Bureau of Economic Analysis I guess does I think does CPI and they would do that we have researchers to do a research on inflation all the time I'm not sure whether the the the piece you I don't think the piece you mentioned it was a Fed piece but we have researchers of resources at Columbia University yeah but they were co-authors there were several co-authors and I wanted to ask you another subject could you explain the relationship of the our immigration policy to employment rate in the economy sure so first yeah we don't have responsibility for immigration policy we don't comment on it we don't advise anybody on immigration policy it's completely not our role but I so but it does kind of connect to our our role in you know in analyzing the economy so you can think of the economy's ability to grow as consisting of two things one is how fast does the labor force growing and secondly how much is output per hour growing that's what growth consists of really just those two things in the United States the lit of the trend growth of our labor force has been very slow it was two and a half percent in the 1960s now it's about a half a percent and about half of that is immigration so immigration is a key input into our longer-term growth rate and I would say if you if you if you look to to population growth as a way to support higher growth to the United States then immigration would need to be in your thinking but again something we don't comment too much on thank you I yield back Thank You representative Truman chairman pal thank you for being here today very much I might have some questions also on labor market participation and I think you've addressed those and also on immigration how that could help us improve increase our labor pool but I was thinking about the status of course the country now we've got over 30 states that put in minimum wage laws from $13 to $16 and there's something business is affected with everywhere you see that's going to address the situation on the mismatch between labor scarcity and yet this very low wage growth that we see and how's that tie in to inflation well we don't take a position on on minimum wage it's really an issue you have to balance there are two things to balance and if I were you I'd look at a broad range of research income research comes two different perspectives but in essentially all the research you see when the minimum wage has raised a significant amount you'll see some job loss and you'll see some wage gains and I would I would look at a range of that research and I would try to think what the right policy is that's how I would do it in terms of inflation it doesn't really play much into whom first of all our mandate is price inflation not wage inflation we don't see wages moving up in any kind of way that suggests that that it would that they would put unwelcome unwelcome upward pressure on prices so I don't really think it is an important part of the inflation discussion right now and trying to translate this labor scarcity that we have into higher wages for the American workers from 2012 to 2016 we had about a hundred and twenty dollar increase per month in average wages and then in 2016 to current that's been cut in half about $56 a month and yet this is in the time of the lowest inflation as you said in 50 years these last 18 months so what is that mismatch between wage growth and lower unemployment mean to our economy well so we look at a wide range of wage and compensation measures and what they tend to show is if you go back five years wages and compensation were going up about two percent that has gradually moved up to about three percent and so that's really the trend has been upward and that's consistent with the thought that a tighter labor market lower unemployment and surveys that suggests the labor market is tight it is consistent with that we've seen wages moving up we look and we look at a I could tell you the principal ones we look at but that's I think that's true across all major measures of wages over the last let's say five six years what do you think they slowed so dramatically the last two years you know I think it's hard to say wait I think a virgin hourly earnings is is an important when it which peaked at 3.4 percent earlier this year or at the end of last year and it has been sort of trickling down it's right at 3% now so it's a fairly modest one I'm not at all sure why that is it may be compositional effects some some argue that as older workers retire younger workers come in and they have lower but in any case you know it's consistent with this with this idea that we're not seeing excessive tightness in the labor market that's generating outsized wage gains we're seeing kind of nice wage gains given inflation and productivity but nothing that's it all out of line with that thank you sure McHale borrowing as a country as a government more than ever with debt held by the public expected to reach 95% of gross domestic product within the next 10 years and yet we're also paying interest on that debt at an all-time historic low with a 30-year borrowing cost of just 2.4 percent what's the reason for this I guess some would say fortunate fiscal reprieve at a time when Congress as an institution has shown really no sign of fiscal discipline at all so what does it come from well it really is a long term trend if for example if you were to look at a graph of what the what the 10-year Treasury yield it if you went back 40 years what you would see is a ski slope down and there it's all the way down to today it's been is a long-term trend by the way it's true all around the globe now why is that happening I think its first of all it's it's inflation getting under control becoming less volatile and ultimately continuing to decline to the point where the risk of lower inflation is actually greater than the risk of higher inflation at the moment that's part of it it's also just aging demographics so as people get into their later years they save more that creates more savings and $4 of investment and that tends to drive interest rates down and I don't know that that that that trend shows no signs of reversing or anything like that so that's that's really what's going on with these longer rates some have suggested that because we in the United States that the United States government borrows in it's its own currency it's this level of spending isn't a problem because the Fed can just monetize the debt and keep doing so more or less indefinitely what's your reaction to that talk or the risks inherent in it yes no I and I as I mentioned in my in my testimony the fact that interest rates are lower does mean that we will pay less in interest it does not mean that we can ignore deficits at all we're going to have to get on a sustainable path what what does that mean so the debt is growing faster than the economy it's as simple as that in nominal terms and that is why definition unsustainable ultimately you will have to get it to to where the debt is not growing faster than the economy and it's going faster in the United States by a but a pretty significant margin so even with lower rates and even with decent growth there's still going to be a need to reduce these deficits in it I would say by the way that's it that's a need over time you know I'm we're not in the business of advising you when to do that or how to do it but it is inevitable that over time we will have to do it and and that you know frankly if we don't do it what happens is well our children will wind up spending their tax dollars more on interest and then the things they really need like education security health in the past you've mentioned uncertainties in the area of international trade as imposing something about economic he had win for us what after we've had over the last couple of years a lot of trade measures going into a what is the Fed learned about the interaction between trade and monetary policy so first the first thing I need to say is we should never be heard to be commenting on on trade policy it's not our job we try to stay in our lane but our lane is the economy but we don't have any view at all we wouldn't express one on trade policy itself our lane is the economy though so in principle anything that affects our ability to achieve our mandated goals is an appropriate subject for monetary policy so we've been hearing now for a year and a half from companies and I think this is fairly widely accepted now that tariffs but to an even greater extent uncertainty around future trade policy is for now it has been weighing on business sentiment and is probably part of the global slowdown and manufacturing in business investment in exports in trade part of the story there's a much bigger story out there but it's a part of that I see my times expired senator Klobuchar thank you very much mr. chairman thank you to you mr. chairman for being here today some of the issues that I was going to raise have been discussed the challenges I had with our economy including the deficit which I will note were greatly exacerbated by the last tax bill and as well as problems in some sectors such as agriculture which is very important to us in the Midwest but I wanted to focus on a third issue I have which is income inequality and even if people have jobs it's often hard for them to afford things and then you have the added problems and strains Washington Post reported this year in September that income inequality in America is a highest it's been since the Census Bureau started tracking it more than five decades ago the top one percent of experienced income growth of over two hundred percent in the last decades and between 2007 and 2016 the medium wealth of lower income families fell by 42% in your opinion will widening inequality lead to lower growth expectations over the long-term and what should we be doing about this so I guess I would start by saying that I think we probably would all agree that prosperity should be as widely shared as possible and so it just pointed to aspects of the of the broader problem that that I I think are important and need attention the first is just the relative stagnation relative stagnation of of incomes below the fairly high part of the distribution and that's even after allowing for taxes and benefits and things like that that's that's one thing where we want to see incomes moving up broadly across the income spectrum the second is is mobility I think you want to see people moving from the bottom to the top and and vice versa by the way he has to happen just as a matter of arithmetic somebody so for example the bottom 20% what are the chances that if you're born in the bottom 20% of income or wealth you'll make it to the middle 20% or the top 20% the United States actually lags most other wealthy countries in that measure now this is very much not our self-image as a country and those are things we need to address so I think those are important that's one and I think increasing the minimum wage are my own views on this would be no full but as you talk about that one of the challenges right now is hooking up our education system with the jobs that are available right now and making sure everyone has access to those jobs and I don't think it always means a four-year degree some of the fastest growing job areas are one in two-year degrees I think we're gonna have 64,000 or 74,000 openings for electricians and one of the things I'm really focused on is apprenticeships and trying to make it easier for people to access those kinds of degrees could you briefly talk about that I we just met last week with six people who run apprenticeship programs and funding of apprenticeship programs around the country in our board room and I have to tell you it's it's very very impressive what they can do there they're focusing on low and moderate-income communities they're getting them in high schools and out of high schools and matching them up with employers who need those people they're getting good jobs it's really working and the thing that limits their ability to do this on a much wider scale is funding yeah it's I mean it's it's very impressive what they can go out of this is how we use our resources for education and matching that up I'll ask you in writing a question on retirement I just think it's becoming such a challenge in our new economy with and Senator Coons and I have a bill to address that called up with up savings accounts which i think is a great idea for small and medium businesses but my asking is back to the income equality very briefly how would reporting economic statistics by income bracket benefit or understanding of the economy we don't have that right now we're actually doing something with that at the Fed what you know we we like to cut data up and and look at it in new ways and this is one of the things we're doing is is combining a couple of data sets that we had were quarterly publishing a distributional financial account when we get that then by the next the next one comes out every quarter so it's a new thing that we're doing and again it's just a just a combination of two existing data sets that we have but we think we think it's an interesting insight into the economy there are a lot of different ways to look at what's happening in the economy and that's an important one Thank You representative Herrera Butler thank you um so I apologize if I have already if some of this ground has already been covered but it's a pleasure to be here and to have you and this is the number one I would say the growth and the forecast of our economy is probably the number one thing that impacts the people I serve in Southwest Washington and so it's very it's it's helpful to hear from your perspective specifically in rural communities where unemployment is is higher than the national average most of my areas are rural although we're bumping up everywhere I wanted to hear some of your biggest takeaways and I've gone through some of your testimony again apologize if you're repeating but in terms of outlook and some of the things that we've done in the most recent years with regard to the tax cuts and Jobs Act different regulatory changes but to either maintain the growth that we've seen or expand it what recommendations would you give well first I think the the outlook is is still a positive one there's no reason this expansion can't continue and there's there's a lot of value in continuing it and we're trying to use our tools to to accomplish that we're seeing this in this the 11th year of an expansion now the longest in in US recorded history what we're seeing is that income gains are being are the highest at the lower level of the lower end of the wage schedule scale and so it's very positive we're also seeing people being pulled back into the labor market there's a lot to like about about this rare place of the 11th year of an expansion and I think we're certainly committed to doing what we can to to extend it in that vein I know your testimony touched on concerns with regard to the national debt could you elaborate on that and how it should be addressed particularly as it relates to expanding or at least not contracting the economy so I think it's a it's a longer-term issue that I imagine we all realize will have to be addressed over time it's it's just the case that now that the debt is growing faster than the economy than the nominal GDP and ultimately in the long run that's not a sustainable place to be now how to fix that it's easy to say that and you know how you do that and when you do that is an issue that is up to you and not to us but I would I would be remiss in not pointing out that the consequences of not addressing it are just that we'll be spending more and more our kids really and grandkids they'll be spending their tax dollars servicing debt rather than on the things they really need as I mentioned earlier education health care security all the things that that we need that they'll need they'll be spending more and more of their money on on tax be you don't need to to balance the budget or pay down the debt or anything like that you just need to get the economy grow faster than the debt and that should be our I think the goal and by the way the successful programs for countries to get back on a sustainable path tend to take place over a long period of time and be relatively gradual and I would be looking at something that would work over over time but really would not be giving you a lot of advice on how to do it with my final 30 seconds do you anticipate maintaining the current Fed rate through the next year I know I wouldn't say that at all and what we said what I've said here and I'll go right to the actual language is that we see the current stance of monetary policy as likely to remain appropriate as long as incoming information about the economy remains broadly consistent with our outlook of moderate growth a strong labor market and inflation near are symmetric 2 percent objective so that's a very data dependent statement we do think monetary policies in it in a good place but we're gonna be watching very carefully incoming data and if developments emerge that cause the material reassessment of the outlook then we'll act appropriately context context context thank you I appreciate it with that I go back representative Baier mr. chairman thank you very much for your equanimity your your strong and stable leadership and and for providing about the most straightforward answers of anybody we talked to yesterday at the Economic Club in New York the president continued his criticism of the Fed saying it had put us at a competitive disadvantage and he also floated the idea of negative interest rates do you take comments from public officials into account when implementing monetary policy and is there any precedent u.s. history for this kind of criticism or praise from an American president so we look exclusively at the data at the research and at the performance of the US economy those are the things we we have a very careful thoughtful process that's been developed over decades over over a century really and that's how we try to set interest rates we don't consider political factors and things like that and what we do thank you I have a friend in Switzerland who went to borrow ten million dollars and got a negative interest rate negative three tenths of a percent so they're paying him 30,000 a year to borrow ten billion dollars you see any prospect for negative interest rates in the US economy what negative interest rates would would certainly not be appropriate in in the current environment our economy is in a strong position we have growth we have we have a strong consumer sector or we have inflation that's a bit below target so the very very low and even negative rates that we see around the world would not be appropriate for our economy those you tend to see negative rates in the larger economies at times when when growth is quite low and in an inflation is quite low that's just not the case here it's different for some of the smaller European countries it's really about keeping their currency from appreciation which is the case with not a number of this countries yeah from December 15 through December 2018 there's a slow consistent increases in rates and we've turned that around with recent cuts this year is there enough room to cut rates further if we get another or slowdown or recession have we given up monetary policy as a tool at the moment for dealing with that well the typical post-world War two recession has involved rate cuts of close to five percent the current federal funds rate is in the mid 150 s so we're well short of that one at one and a half percent so I think it's it's it's a fact not just in the United States but around the world that central banks are going to have less room to cut in this new normal of lower rates and low inflation so that's why we are conducting this external review of monetary policy at the Fed we're looking for ways to make sure that we have the tools to to to do what what we're assigned to do by U which is achieve maximum employment and stable prices even in downturns and that's what we're going to be doing I will say also though that fiscal policy is often you know part of the answer often a big part of the answers are often a big part of the answer when there's a severe downturn we would certainly look for good thank you again by bringing up the challenge that the public debt faces all of us here you know I was raised to believe that money supply and growth were causally related then if I'm money supply group quickly than or equal on my outfit that inflation was the endeavor result but we're less than 2% this year you have muted expectations is there no longer a connection between money supply growth and inflation yeah I think you might pay any attention to modern monetary theories for example well so the connection between monetary aggregates inflation that's something we all learned in econ 101 I did it was important it was it was generally thought to be an empirically it was a it was a good relationship I think about 40 years ago as the financial system developed all kinds of alternative forms of money the relationship between monetary aggregates and growth has just gone away and so we don't we of course look at those aggregates but they no longer are a driving part of the theory it's really the part of the price of money as opposed to the quantity it that we look at which is interest rates I'm at a time but thank you very much just generally you'll be Senator cotton Thank You mr. chairman chairman pal welcome back I want to start by talking about China's economic growth maybe I should say China's economic growth in quotes they've reported most recently six and a half percent growth that's down from most of the last 30 years but still probably somewhat inflated in fact Michael Pettis at the Carnegie Endowment for international peace says that Chinese industrialists and economists find it hard to find any economic sector in China and joining any growth he had a few findings I found to be quite interesting first GDP is not a particularly useful measure for determining Chinese growth because they have such massive investments in non-productive activities second that China likely distorts its GDP being significantly in a way that's systematically pushing it higher and in third that's increasingly GDP as report in China is not so much a measure of economic output but a measure of political intent given the benchmarks that China imposes on local governments as many as well as many state-owned enterprises as long as they have debt capacity and Po and postponed the writing down of non-productive initiatives they could essentially achieve any growth target they wanted what are your thoughts about this general question of Chinese growth and the specific points that mr. Pettis is research had found I think it's very hard I certainly feel that it's very hard to understand China you know that you could read all you want you can visit it all the time but nonetheless it's still very hard I think for for me anyway to to really feel like you understand the way the economy works the way the society works so I think that there's a I think you have to as a general matter just accept that it's really hard to know I think on economic data in particular you know we don't and I'm familiar with Michael Pattison as a research and all that but we you know we haven't taken a view as an institution about that I think a couple of things are worth noting one is that you know the it may be that there's more information in the change than there is in the level if you know what I mean the other another is that we've noticed here in the last few years that the volatility of their of their economic report says has declined substantially which is just kind of suggests a little bit more management nonetheless we don't we don't really know the truth is we don't really know we have to take the data and we do take it with a bit of grain of salt you spend at the Federal Reserve your many capable economist there a lot of time looking a lot of underlying indicators and statistics try to assess the direction of our economy when you look at not just how the Chinese leadership in the Communist Party behaved but when you look at some of those indicators well how their people are behaving or how other things like say maybe energy inputs or shipping so forth do you see a country behaving as if they have almost 7 percent growth right now it's hard to say I would say that one thing that's notable is that is that they have not responded with massive stimulus at this to this current situation they've had obviously over a longer period of time growth has been slowing from you know three decades of 10% as an economy matures and I think they're trying to manage that decline they did put an awful lot of stimulus to work the financial crisis and that's supported their growth I think they have been much more cautious and careful they have a deleveraging campaign as I'm sure you know it's been going on now for one or two years and they haven't really backed away from that and that's that's part of by the way that I think that is part of the global slowdown actually is trying to trying to at least stop debt from growing inside China where they have unusually high debt as a society for any emerging market nation so I would say that they're behaving relatively thoughtfully and responsibly in response in response they appear to be in response to this current slowdown all right thank you my time is expired senator has him well thank you very much mr. chair and I appreciate your and the vice chairs convening of this meeting and to chair Powell thank you for being here and for your work mr. Powell as you know it is critical to the long-term safety and stability of the US economy that the Federal Reserve makes data-driven decision and remains independent from political influence unfortunately recent political pressure on the Fed is having real world economic consequences a recent study found that markets react each time you were publicly pressured to intervene in the economy with a quantifiable change in investors expectations that the feds interest rate targets will drop Chair Powell can you tell the committee what actions you are taking at the Federal Reserve to not only insulate against political influence but also to signal to investors that the Fed makes independent decisions based on sound economic analyses thank you so politics plays absolutely no role in our decisions we use the best data the best analysis we can muster mm-hmm we were human and we'll make mistakes but we won't make mistakes of character or integrity so I am familiar with that research and I would just say it's I think it's very hard to look at you know our incredibly complicated financial markets and economy where many many things are driving results in and pull out a one or two tiny effects there's other research that points to different results but I would it's it's absolutely essential that everyone understands that we are doing our jobs as we always have without regard to politics we serve all Americans we do the best we can based on our analysis we try to be as transparent as we can we explain ourselves put everything we do on the record people dissent they put their dissent on the record yeah and that's as it should be I just think it's important understanding that research is complicated that we don't complicate it further with political actors putting pressure on the Fed and that has been the norm in the tradition and it's one that I hope we can return to I wanted to follow up on something that Senator Lee had talked to you about because as a member of the Senate Finance Committee which also has jurisdiction over trade I'm pushing for clear strategic trade policy that provide certainty to struggling small businesses as you and I have talked about I've heard from businesses all across my state that have been targeted by China's unfair trade practices including the theft of intellectual property and the forced transfer of proprietary technology on top of these economic harms the administration has manufactured endless trade uncertainty and heaped damaging tariffs on new hampshire's businesses I know you have repeatedly said chair Powell that this recent trade uncertainty has created risks for the US and global economies can you expand a bit on your previous answer on how trade uncertainty has impacted the economic outlook and what you view is the feds proper role in responding to the ongoing trade tensions with China so we we hear from businesses and have been hearing them for a year and a half that they're you know that this is a big issue for them and that it's holding them back from making decisions I mean in the first instance but businesses were we're looking at ways to rearrange their their supply change almost all manufacturing businesses these days have supply chains that go so I think it's been a real distraction for management and I think it's weighed on bet business's willingness and ability to to you know to to invest yeah and keep growing and that kind of thing in terms of the appropriate response you know our response is not to give advice on trade policy but it is to react to whatever it is that either is either helping or hurting our ability to achieve our mandated goals and so this is one of those things we call it out as something that we are aware of and as something that is weighing on on business sentiment and ultimately on the economy well thank you for that and I'll just note we may submit to the record that I share a representative Frankel's interest and concern about the inflation gap it's not just a wage gap but the impact of inflation at particular and are working in middle-class families and I hope that that's something we can learn more about from the Fed Thank You mr. chair senator Heinrich welcome chairman and thank you for coming to testify today I had a chance recently to meet with a number of European central bankers and they really outlined for a group of us the steps that they're taking to understand and quantify and mitigate the risks that climate change is posing to the financial markets so I wanted to ask you what the Fed is doing to understand those risks and to look at their role in in the economy as we're moving forward I just say climate change is an important issue but it's not principally one that is it is not one that has given principally to the Fed to to deal with if you will to other other agencies have that yeah clearly that's the case I just want to understand if we're if we're looking in a broad way at risk and understanding the data from that sort of lens so I think that is the right lens the lens for us is risk management so we are we're doing there researchers all through the Federal Reserve System who are thinking about the longer-run implications of climate change for the economy for financial institutions and for all kinds of things and I think that's that's appropriate research we're just globally at the beginning of understanding that and there's a lot of research going on including a significant amount at the Fed I think honestly for monetary policy it's not a current consideration it's it would not be something that would have any effect on the current setting of monetary policy over time though it could for example affect the neutral rate of interest or the volatility of economic activity and things like that those are things that were you know we're thinking about for the longer term I think the public will expect us to assess any risk and use use that assessment in the way we supervise regulate financial institutions and and also just potentially over the longer term in terms of monetary policy do you have an opinion on robustness of how US banks broadly are analyzing that risk and and basically what I'm asking is do we need to start thinking through whether or not we need to either self impose or or at some point impose some sort of stress test to look at the assets that banks are holding and and whether they're not whether they don't have some concentration of risk if they're not thinking through that appropriately what we're doing now is we are trying to make sure that financial institutions that are in regions that may be subject to severe weather have plans to redundant systems and be able to be resilient to that that's the main thing we're doing I think so the Bank of England is it sounds like you're aware is is doing a stress test based on climate scenarios but it's not the it's it's a stress test that's meant to be purely informative it wouldn't do what our seek are where our stress tests do and potentially limit distributions and that kind of think that's an interesting idea we'll be monitoring it and and I think we're gonna benefit from some of the activity around the world that we're seeing with other central banks we'll try to learn from what they're doing yeah we're obviously already seen some places where it's harder to turn over a house in flood prone areas and if you had a concentration of mortgages that you were holding in in areas like that obviously that could pose a real a real financial risk do you think that GDP data adequately gives us enough of a picture about who is benefitting from the economy and I guess in other words should we be looking at how economic growth is being distributed across the quintiles to the economy it's really hard to capture gross domestic product and a 22 trillion dollar economy I think it's I think are the people who do that do a great job at it but it's quite difficult we we actually it's interesting to try to cut the income data so we're doing some of that now with our distributional financial accounts other agencies are doing the same thing I think when you have the data we have a tendency to want to cut it up different ways and see what we learn and so we're doing that now and I think it is informative about about the way income and wealth are shared broadly speaking in the country it's it's an important perspective we're certainly looking forward to seeing that data great thank you senator Cruz Thank You mr. chairman Aaron Powell welcome thank you for your testimony we are right now experiencing remarkable economic growth across the country we have the lowest unemployment in 50 years we have the lowest african-american unemployment ever recorded with the lowest Hispanic unemployment ever recorded in your judgment what economic policies have played the most important part in generating that that economic growth that we're seeing right now well I think I'd be reluctant to single out particular policies I'll just say this though that it's been a long slow recovery but it's come a long way we're now in the 11th year it's the longest since we began keeping you know credible records of the US economy in the mid 1800s the longest one and and we hope a significant way to go we've just seen continued improvement and I think I would point to a couple things these these long expansions are common now and that really is because we conquered the high inflation we've seen three of the four longest expansions in the US history have been among the last four expansions so it's kind of become the norm to have these long ones I think I hope everyone takes credit for the good economy we're seeing now because it is it is a really good place I think it's worth noting you know as you mentioned 50-year low and unemployment wage is moving up at the bottom of the scale more than any way growth continuing at a solid pace in the 11th year of the expansion I think it's it's a really good time and I want everybody to get credit for that not us but so I have real concerns that going into 2020 that we may see a slowdown in investments as those allocating capital look at the political scene and look at some of the economic proposals being put forth by Democratic candidates for president and and I have concerns that that may cause people to tap the brakes in terms of deploying capital until at least after the election and and finding out whether these these policies might possibly be implemented in your judgment what would the likely economic impact be of the federal government implementing a massive tax increase senator I'm I'm pretty reluctant to be pulled into the 2020 election a few if you will fit I certainly don't expect you to to comment on the election but but but you can't comment on the economy and if a massive tax increase is good or bad for the economy again I'm you know I mean everything that's indirectly where as you started at your question it's about proposals of candidates and I just you know honestly don't want to get into that business if I if you'll forgive me well let me ask you a number of candidates are proposing a wealth tax not just on income but on wealth do you have any views on the economic behavior that would likely follow from a wealth tax scaling as high as 8 percent annually it is really not our role to to score or evaluate campaign proposals and I you know that's what the CBO does that's what lots of other people do we really try to stay out of that business all right well let's let's try a different thing former chairman ben bernanke in 2014 called the shale revolution one of the most beneficial economic developments in the country do you share that assessment and conversely do you have concerns about the impact on the economy if the federal government were to ban fracking and shut down the shale revolution I I would certainly agree I think that the the energy independence of the United States is something that we pulled people been talking about for 50 years and I never thought it would happen and here it is it's it's in the nature of a miracle it seems to me so it's it's a great thing I would say it's not to say there aren't issues to manage environmental issues all kinds of other issues but I think it's it's been a great thing for the country and would it be harmful to end it I well I wouldn't I wouldn't be looking I wouldn't be I think to to shut down the shale industry yeah that would be that would probably not be a good thing for the economy thank you thank you very much mr. chairman we know you have a hard stop here in about two minutes I wanted to use my prerogative as chairman to ask one final question we're we're in the middle of some pretty strong economic activity very low unemployment almost unprecedented economic stability what policy or policies should we pursue to keep that going well I think that the if you're asking for my my views on that I think that the the thing to focus on if I were in your shoes are the longer-run issues that we face particularly around labor force participation and growth it's about the the potential growth of the United States we are seeing now how important it is and how good it is to have a long expansion with a lot of growth and how it benefits people across the income spectrum so I can't overstate the importance of that I think in the longer run the things we need to address our labor force participation and productivity which is closely linked to education so I think our workers need to have the skills and aptitudes to win in a global economy and those those are the things that are going to matter for our for our children and our grandchildren is is what can we do now to keep the u.s. sustainable longer-term growth rate as high as it can be going forward thank you very much and thanks so much for joining us today and thanks for your service on behalf of our country record women open for two weeks we stand adjourned thank you very much

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Length: 82min 6sec (4926 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 13 2019