Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Esther George said she would have preferred the Federal Open Market Committee make a “small move” to continue the gradual normalization of monetary policy at its last meeting, according to a published interview.
“For me it is really beginning to move slowly and on a path that allows this economy to adjust and put rates closer to where the economy is performing,” George said of her dissent at the meeting in an interview with the New York Times.
As to why she wanted a rate hike, George said, “My concern is whether we’re creating imbalances that we can’t really see today.”
The paper noted that at the December FOMC meeting George said the Fed had waited too long to start increasing the fed funds target, inquiring if the Fed has fallen further behind. George responded, “We won’t know if we’re behind the curve until it’s actually too late. But the economy began to move out of recession in 2010. It hardly seems like we’re moving early when we see that we’re near full employment.”
