Powell Stresses Racial Equality At the Root of Employment Mandate

Q: Re racial economic gaps, do you agree they are currently a drag on the economy and if so what can the Fed do to narrow them?

- A: I strongly agree with that... the reason we talk about inequality and racial inquality in particular, it goes to our goal of achieving maximum employment. The US economy can be bigger, stronger, growing faster if we can achieve broader prosperity. Re our tools, that's a project for the broader society, fiscal policy etc, but we have a role to play. We're not going to say we've reached maximum employment if there's lots of pockets of people not participating in or not employed in the labor market.