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"Our most important task is tackling inflation," Michigan State
University economics professor Lisa Cook, one of three Fed
nominees up for a confirmation hearing at the U.S. Senate on
Thursday, said in her prepared remarks.
The Fed must "ensure that inflation declines to levels
consistent with its goals," said nominee Philip Jefferson, dean
of faculty at Davidson College.
Reducing inflation must be a "top priority while we continue to
sustain our economic recovery," nominee and former Fed governor
Sarah Bloom Raskin wrote.
Fed policymakers have signaled they will start raising interest
rates next month, perhaps at a pace not seen in decades, as they
scramble to cut short the upward price spiral that threatens to
undermine the recovery from the pandemic recession.
Consumer prices rose 7% last near -- more than twice the Fed's
2% goal -- cheapening American wages, eating into household
budgets, and becoming an increasing political liability for
Biden, whose popular standing has suffered as inflation has
soared.
The three Fed nominees have been widely seen as leaning dovish,
in part because Cook's research focused on inequality and
Jefferson's on poverty, suggesting that they might tolerate
inflation for the sake of a stronger labor market.
Their written testimony released Wednesday appeared calibrated
to push back on that assumption.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir and Jonelle Marte; editing by Chris
Reese and Richard Pullin)
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