This is John Batchel. Conversation with colleague Elizabeth Peake of the Hill and Fox News about

J. Powell and Federal Reserve. The interest rates have remained where they are for some time now,

but what are they watching for? They're understood to be higher than necessary. Hence, the housing market

is stalled in this springtime of maximum best occasion to

sell your house. So, we look at employment, seems to be sturdy. We look at what we know of the

inflation rate seems to be sturdy. There is no visible sign of what Mr. Powell is watching for.

He's data-driven.

So the puzzle is he's waiting for the future, Liz suggests.

Waiting for something to happen about tariffs, Liz suggests.

Here's Elizabeth P. to explain that J-. Powell is adjusting the Federal Reserve for the future,

even though it's not here yet, and there's no certainty that it will arrive anytime soon.

More of this tonight.

Liz Peake.

Unpleasant, if you will, or sort of annoying about Powell's position is that he has always said

were data-driven, always looked at recent trends in inflation, which, by the way, had been

lower in this country, mainly because of energy costs coming down, always looking to the past numbers on employment, unemployment claims, things like that, to give us an indication of where the economy is.

Now, what is he doing? He's really imagining the future. Are we going to have a big step up in, as you point out, the rate of

inflation because some prices go up, because people are passing along, are passing along

the costs of tariffs. And that seems contradictory to me. Either Jay Powell should be data-driven

on what we know or not,

but we shouldn't be imagining perhaps what's going to come in the future.

And I think it's a bit irresponsible.

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