Federal Reserve press conference, 2020-07-29 — Chair Jerome Powell

Question (James Politi, Financial Times): Hi there. James Politi with the Financial Times. Chair Powell, the Fed today decided to extend dollar liquidity swap lines with a number of central banks around the world. Why was that important for the Fed? And how concerned are you about dollar shortages persisting over time through the pandemic?
Answer: Well, so our—our dollar swap lines—we introduced those back at the beginning of—of this episode after the pandemic made itself present. And dollar funding markets were in very difficult shape at the time. And the introduction of the swap lines has really restored dollar funding markets around the world to fairly normal levels of activity. And so they kind of served their purpose. But we extended them—I guess, yesterday morning— really to facilitate planning by other central banks and just so people will know that those facilities are still there. We want them to remain in place and be available as long as they are needed. And since, you know, the crisis and the economic fallout from—from the pandemic are far from over, we’re going to leave those in place for the time being. And we’ll leave them in place until we’re confident that they’re no longer needed. There’s nothing that’s going on in the market right now that raises any concerns. It’s just, we want them to be there as a backstop for markets.

Question (Ann Saphir, Reuters): Hi. Yes, thanks for taking my question. So, I mean, as you monitor the rising infections and the slowing pace of the recovery, could you speak to, what would the trigger be for doing further easing? And on the flip side of that, when would it be reasonable to expect the Fed to consider raising rates again? Thanks.
Answer: So, you know, as we’ve said, we’re carefully monitoring the situation. We moved very quickly and very aggressively early, and we’ve been monitoring the situation. And I think the markets and—and the economy—you know, I think our policy is in a good place. But we’ve looked at—at ways of adapting our policy as time goes by, and we’re ready to do that when we think it’s appropriate. I can’t give you a specific trigger. It really just is when we think it would help: Would it help more than what we’re doing now to foster maximum employment and stable prices? Sorry, your second question was? [Inaudible] I can’t hear you. Say it again?