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President Joe Biden met with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the White House on Tuesday to discuss tackling historically high levels of inflation, declaring it a top priority for the administration while also reassuring the public that the economy remains strong.
President Biden meets with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet … [+]
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At the meeting, President Biden and Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled the growing urgency needed in fighting inflation, which remains at 40-year highs and has led to rising recession fears among investors who have been battered by a brutal market selloff this year.
The President reiterated on Tuesday that while bringing down inflation is a paramount concern, he will provide the central bank with the “independence it needs to tackle inflation,” Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, said at a press conference following Biden and Powell’s meeting.
The Biden Administration remains committed to fighting inflation, which is a “global challenge”—as evidenced by the dismal euro zone inflation report earlier today—but is “not going to interfere” with the Fed’s work, Deese noted at the press conference.
Prior to his discussion with Fed Chair Powell, Biden declared fighting inflation a “top economic priority” for his administration, according to his recent op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal.
Despite gloomy outlooks on Wall Street about a possible recession, the US economy is taking on inflation from a position of “relative economic strength” and is in a period of transitioning from a historically strong recovery to more stable, resilient growth.
While the White House wouldn’t comment on specifics of Fed policy, Biden “agrees with the assessment” that the Fed is making on inflation and “has confidence in the people that he has nominated,” Deese said.