Press conference exchange between MATTHEW BOESLER and Fed Chair Jerome Powell:

user: Hi, Chair Powell. This is Matthew Boesler with Bloomberg News. So there’s a widespread presumption at this point that the U.S. will reach herd immunity sometime this year. And all along, you’ve said that the path of the economy is going to be determined by the course of the virus. I’m curious, based on the projections that you released today that show unemployment will still be above estimates of maximum employment through the end of next year and perhaps sometime into 2023, do you think policymakers need to be doing more here to align the herd immunity and full employment timelines, if you will? Thank you.

assistant: So, on, on herd immunity, I, I’m really going to leave that question to the experts. We don’t control that. We’re not responsible for defining it. And we’ll, we’ll leave that whole discussion to the experts. I mean, we’re—what we’re focused on is, is the part that we control, which is the support that we provide to the economy. And there we’ve provided very clear guidance. And in the case of asset purchases, it’s at their current level until we make substantial further progress. There is an element of judgment in that, and we’ll, we’ll— therefore, we’ll supply clear communication well in advance of, of actually tapering, and we just went through, you know, the, the criteria for raising interest rates. They’re very specific. And, you know, we’re, we’re very much committed to having them fulfilled robustly. I, I would agree with you that the, the path of the virus continues to be very important. We, we have these, you know, new strains with—which, which can be quite virulent. And we’re not actually done yet. And I, I—we’re clearly on a good path with, with cases coming down, as I mentioned, but we’re not done. And I’d hate to see us take our eye off the ball before we actually finish the job. So that’s how I would look at that.

user: If I could just briefly follow up, how do you see the disconnect in terms of an economy that is expected to be widely reopened this year but full employment taking longer to achieve? Is it, is it the case that factors related to the virus will still be with us over the coming years? Is that how to interpret the forecasts?

assistant: I think there’s some of that. Sure, there’ll be some of that. There will still be some social distancing. People may be, for example, going into spaces that, that, you know, that involve close contact with others. Some people will do that right away. Others will hold back. And so I think there’ll—there’ll be some of that. In addition, though, remember, there are—there are 10 million people—in the range of 10 million people who need to get back to work. And it’s going to take some time for that to happen. You know, it can—it can happen maybe, maybe more quickly than it has in the past, because it involves the reopening of a sector of the economy, as opposed to stimulating aggregate demand and waiting for that to produce job demand for workers. This could be a different a process. And it could be quicker. We don’t know that. But it’s, it’s just a lot of people who have—who need to get back to work. And it’s not going to happen overnight. It would be—it’s going to take some time. No matter how well the economy performs, unemployment will take quite a time to go—to go down, and so will participation. So that’s all I can say. I think the faster the better; we’d love to see it come sooner rather than later. We’d welcome nothing more than that. But, realistically, given the numbers, it’s going to take some time.