Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari signaled confidence that markets will remain orderly as investors sort through President Donald Trump’s shifting trade policies and said the central bank must stay focused on keeping inflation expectations anchored.
Speaking after a week that brought a sharp surge in 10-year Treasury yields, Kashkari said US trade and fiscal policy will determine where that number goes.
“At the Fed, our job is to keep inflation under control so that rate isn’t even higher,” he said Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation.
Kashkari was among Fed policymakers who signaled last week that they’re prepared to hold the Fed’s policy rate steady to minimize the risk that Trump’s tariffs trigger a persistent rise in inflation, even if the labor market softens further.
In public comments and interviews, a number of officials have sent a clear signal they’re ruling out interest-rate cuts that would act as an insurance policy against any tariff-induced economic slowdown.
“I think investors in the US and around the world are trying to determine what is the new normal in America” and the Fed has “zero ability to affect that destination,” Kashkari told CBS.
“All we can do is keep inflation expectations anchored and manage some of the ups and downs on that journey,” he said.
Asked whether markets are orderly, Kashkari replied, “They are,” adding that volatility is to be expected as market participants “grasp for where is all this going to settle.”
“But markets are functioning, transactions are happening and so I anticipate that’s going to continue,” he said.