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"We've got the economy and the policy in a good position right
now," Daly told reporters on a call. "I see us as well
positioned to weather this storm we are in, and it remains to be
seen if more will be needed ... I'll continue to watch the data
and see if adjustments will be necessary."
The Fed slashed interest rates to zero in the face of the
coronavirus pandemic and began pumping trillions of dollars into
financial markets, extraordinary actions that have helped fuel
stock price gains even as the real economy struggles to regain
its footing. Millions of Americans are still out of work.
The situation, Daly said in a talk Tuesday hosted virtually by
the University of California, Irvine, "seems unfair (and)
another example of Wall Street winning and Main Street losing."
But keeping interest rates at their current near-zero levels
until the economy returns to full employment, as the Fed has
promised it will do, will in time create more jobs and help
reduce inequality, Daly said.
And while raising rates earlier might keep the already rich from
adding further to their wealth, she suggested, it would also
exacerbate inequality by making jobs for everyone else even
harder to come by.
"I am not willing to trade millions of jobs ... to keep the
stock market from going up for the few who have those holdings,"
she said.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Sandra Maler and Stephen
Coates)
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