A fellow who is arguably the single most powerful economic policymaker in the country

goes on national television to talk about not doing anything rash.

I'm David Brancaccio, prudentent was the watchword from Fed Chair Jerome Powell in a TV interview

last night Powell told CBS 60 Minutes.

The Federal Reserve is figuring some interest rate cuts for this year but he's in no rush to start.

Marketplace is Nancy Marshall Genser has more.

The economy is strong right now.

It's still growing and unemployment is low.

On CBS's 60 minutes last night, Fed Chair Powell said the steady economy gives the

Fed some breathing room.

It doesn't have to slash rates immediately to handle some economic emergency.

With the economy strong like that, we feel like we can approach the question of when to begin

to reduce interest rates carefully. And we want to see more evidence that

inflation is moving sustainably down to 2%. It's a delicate balancing act though.

The Fed doesn't want to lower rates too soon and risk igniting inflation, but it also doesn't

want to wait too long because leaving rates too high too long could trigger a recession.

As usual, Powell said the timing depends on the data. He was interviewed before last Friday's

jobs report, which showed 353,000 new jobs were created last month, many more than expected.

I'm Nancy Marshall Genser for Marketplace. Oh, My neighbor and I have a home brew going, supposedly, five gallons of something that with luck might end up tasting like anchor steam from the famed brewery in San Francisco that went out of business last year.

For pianist and conductor Bill Eddens, his home brewing, has helped prompt a business idea.

It's called Metro Nome, a brewery with the goal of supporting music education in the Minneapolis-St Paul area.

The operation already has some 390 performances under its belt from youth bands to local groups

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