MNI BRIEF: Fed's Kashkari - Talk Of Pivot ‘Entirely Premature’

It’s far too soon for the Federal Reserve to contemplate the monetary policy “pivot” that markets have been yearning for because inflation is far too high while unemployment is at historic lows, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said Wednesday.

“Any talk of a pivot is entirely premature,” he said during a Q&A at the regional central bank he leads. “People say, what might drive the pivot at some point in the future? At some point the two sides of our mandate will come into tension. But we are a long long way from that right now.”

Kashkari said he was still not sure about the size of the December meeting move. "There's a lot of talk in the public about will we raise rates by 50 basis points, 75 basis points? Those are certainly going to be on the table, but could it something beyond that? It's possible too."

Ex-Richmond Fed research director John Weinberg told MNI’s FedSpeak podcast last week the Fed will need to get real rates to positive territory before it can consider a pause in rate hikes.