Federal Reserve Governor COOK said on Wednesday at a Stanford event that inf is
moving in the wrong direction and, if that persists, she is prepared to raise
interest rates. She said she currently leans toward leaving borrowing costs
unchanged and expects price growth to cool again over the coming months, but her
remarks align her with many Fed officials who see accelerating inf as a bigger
policy concern than the labor market. COOK said: “I want to be clear about my
risk assessment: risks still tilt to higher inf.” She warned five years of inf
above the Fed’s 2% target has increased the risk that price pressures become
embedded in price- and wage-setting behavior, and said: “Therefore, if the
expected process of disinflation does not occur in time, I am prepared to raise
rates.”
