NY Fed's Williams Remains Equivocal On 2021 Taper

Main comments from NY Fed Pres Williams' speech below. Nothing out of line really - he's still one of the most dovish on the FOMC, and appropriately equivocal on whether the taper should start this year( that "could be appropriate").

• On Employment: "But I cannot stress enough that we still have a long way to go to get back to our maximum employment goal. For example, there are still over five million fewer jobs today than before the pandemic, and the unemployment rate is still far above the levels reached early last year."
• On inflation: "Taking a closer look at the data, it's clear that this [recent] spike in inflation largely reflects the transitory effects of the rapid reopening of the economy, which is pushing supply and demand in extreme ways. As the economy gets through these unusual dynamics, I expect inflation to come back down to around 2 percent next year."
• The upshot for policy: " I think it's clear that we have made substantial further progress on achieving our inflation goal. There has also been very good progress toward maximum employment, but I will want to see more improvement before I am ready to declare the test of substantial further progress being met. Assuming the economy continues to improve as I anticipate, it could be appropriate to start reducing the pace of asset purchases this year. I will be carefully assessing the incoming data on the labor market and what it means for the economic outlook, as well as assessing risks such as the effects of the Delta variant."