Powell Sees No Evidence That Price Increases Will Go On Indefinitely

Q: RE Transitory: what would you say to people who see prices going up and wonder how long they're going to wait. Also any comment on vaccine mandates on federal employees.

• A: The concept of transitory is that the increases will happen - we're not saying they'll reverse, that's not what transitory means -- the increases in prices will happen, so there will be inflation but that the process of inflation will stop. When we think of inflation, we think of inflation going up year upon year upon year, that's inflation.
• When you have inflation for 12 months, for example, then you have a price increase. But you don't have an inflation process.
• Part of that just is that if it doesn't affect longer term inflation expectations, then it's very likely not to affect the process of inflation going forward. What I mean by "transitory" is just something that doesn't leave a permanent mark on the inflation process. Again, we don't mean that producers are going to take those price increases back - it's just that they won't go on indefinitely.
• We don't think that's happening, there's no evidence it's happening. But nonetheless we have to watch this very carefully. It's a term that really means temporary, but then you got to understand that it doesn't mean that the increases will be taken back. Some of them will be, but that's not really what it means.
• RE Vaccines: We're going to follow public health guidance, haven't made fundamental decisions about working back in the Fed office.