Federal Reserve press conference, 2021-04-28 — Chair Jerome Powell

Question (Edward Lawrence, Fox Business): Thank you, Fed Chairman, for the question. So I’m interested in your thoughts. There’s so much fiscal help and accommodation from the Federal Reserve. You said today the vaccinations will follow the normal economic conditions or, or lead to more normal economic conditions later this year. When do you see the economy being able to stand on its own feet, so to speak? And, along those lines, with the fiscal spending and the accommodation you talked about with transitory inflation, does more spending need to be injected into the system, or will that affect that transitory nation—nature of the inflation? Thank you.
Answer: When will the economy be, be able to stand on its own feet? I’m not sure if—I’m not sure what the exact nature of that question is.

Question (Edward Lawrence, Fox Business): Yes, sure. With all the fiscal spending that’s happened and the accommodation and—does, does the system need more spending either from the fiscal side or accommodation, or would more spending affect the transitory nature of the inflation and put those upward, upward pressures on inflation long term?
Answer: So it’s really up to Congress. We—we’re not an adviser to Congress. You know, we don’t, we don’t weigh in on specific fiscal bills or proposals. That’s really between elected parties. You know, basically, fiscal policy is the province of people who stand for democratic election and win, and they get to make those very difficult decisions, and they get to be accountable to the voters. We didn’t do any of that, and we don’t have a seat at that table. We don’t seek a seat at that table. So that’s really something for Congress and the Administration to, to deal with.