Cleveland Fed President: We need more good inflation news before cutting rates

Things are moving in the right direction. I mean, we've made a lot of progress in the last two years. Inflation is down from its peak. Remember, it peaked between 7:00 and 9:00 percent depending on what measure you're looking at. Right now, we're below 3. That's a great, you know, bit of progress there. We're not there yet though, because our goal is 2%. At the same time, labor markets are very healthy and that's a really good thing. We have a dual mandate. So we're making progress. We need to see continued progress and I think that's where. Statement is trying to convey that we've made progress. We want to see that progress continue, right? But then of course. What is the sign for you that there will have been sufficient progress to make the cut? So what I'm looking for are a couple more months of good reports. You know, we got a pretty good report, CPI report the second day of our our meeting this week. That was great. That was great gift for my last meeting at the FOMC, I have to say. But we just need to have them. I would like to see a few more of those reports. And as inflation comes down and as one year ahead, inflation expectations come down, then I would be thinking that it is appropriate to to think about, you know, taking off some of that restrictiveness in our policy. Would you never just think, oh God, the markets are just give them a quarter, keep them happy, throw a bit of red meat, give them a quarter and then don't do anything for the next six months. And then while we've bought, while we bed down. No, I think we always have to be looking at what the economy is doing, where it's going, and what the risks are to our dual mandate goals. So that's kind of the evaluation I do before every FOMC meeting is OK. You know, this is what the incoming information tells us, the data as well as all the reports that we get when we talk to contacts all across the 4th District, in my case. And then that tells you something about, OK, this is where the economy is right now, this is where it's headed. There are risks to both parts of our mandate at this point, and we need to take those into account. That's how we set policy.