Bloomberg News/Landov Fed Chairman Jerome Powell exits after speaking on Capitol Hill last month.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday he’s the very model of a central banker as “everything” keeps him up at night.
During a question-and-answer session at an event sponsored by the Atlantic Magazine, Powell was asked by PBS NewsHour host Judy Woodruff what keeps him up at night when it comes to this economy and the world economy.
“Basically everything,” Powell answered, in a deadpan voice.
“Nobody wants a central banker who sleeps well. What good is that?” he added.
Asked about President Donald Trump’s criticism of the Fed, Powell said he and his colleagues focus on “controlling the controllable.” He said he has not had a private conversation with the president following his criticism.
In his comments on interest-rate policy, Powell did not break new ground. He laid out a case for moving interest rates up at a gradual pace, which economists generally see as meaning one rate hike every three months. Moving faster might risk constraining growth while moving slower might allow the economy to overheat, the Fed chairman said.
Powell said the U.S. central bank wants to get rates up to a “neutral” level that neither boosts nor restrains growth. The level of short-term rates is still far away from neutral, he said.
Last week, the Fed raised interest rates by another quarter-point to a range of 2% to 2.25%.
Read: Fed hikes interest rates and signals strong support for another increase in December
The 10-year Treasury yield TMUBMUSD10Y, +3.92% hit its highest level since 2011 as the strong economic data reinforced the case for more Fed rate hikes.
Asked if the strong economy can persist, Powell said “I wish I knew.” He played down talk of a recession.
“Business cycles don’t last forever, but there is really no reason to think that this cycle can’t continue for quite some time,” he said.
Powell said there may be something to the theory that workers have lost bargaining power in a significant, long-lasting way.
