Powell Answers Question On Omicron Impact

Q: On Omicron impact.

• A: "I think there's a lot of uncertainty which is why we called it out in our statement our post-meeting statement as a risk." Goes through the various reports on Omicron ("we follow the same experts that everyone else does"); "we're a long way from knowing what it will turn out to be...may come to the US and replace Delta as the dominant variant fairly quickly."
• But another step - what's the effect on the economy? That will depend how much it suppresses demand, as opposed to supply. It's not clear." I do think wave upon wave people are learning to live with this....won't have the economic effect Delta had of slowing down hiring....it can have an economic effect... we'll know a whole lot more in 3 weeks, and we'll know more than that in 6 weeks."