Federal Reserve — FOMC Statement (USA, 2021)

Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee January 26 27, 2021 A joint meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee and the Board of Governors was held by videoconfer- ence on Tuesday, January 26, 2021, at 1:00 p.m. and con- tinued on Wednesday, January 27, 2021, at 9:00 a.m.1 PRESENT: Jerome H. Powell, Chair John C. Williams, Vice Chair Thomas I. Barkin Raphael W. Bostic Michelle W. Bowman Lael Brainard Richard H. Clarida Mary C. Daly Charles L. Evans Randal K. Quarles Christopher J. Waller Ann E. Misback, Secretary, Office of the Secretary, Board of Governors Matthew J. Eichner,2 Director, Division of Reserve Bank Operations and Payment Systems, Board of Governors; Michael S. Gibson, Director, Division of Supervision and Regulation, Board of Governors; Andreas Lehnert, Director, Division of Financial Stability, Board of Governors Daniel M. Covitz, Deputy Director, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors; Sally Davies, Deputy Director, Division of International Finance, Board of Governors; Michael T. Kiley, Deputy Director, Division of Financial Stability, Board of Governors Jon Faust, Senior Special Adviser to the Chair, Division James Bullard, Esther L. George, Loretta J. Mester, of Board Members, Board of Governors Helen E. Mucciolo, and Eric Rosengren, Alternate Members of the Federal Open Market Committee Patrick Harker, Robert S. Kaplan, and Neel Kashkari, Presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia, Dallas, and Minneapolis, respectively James A. Clouse, Secretary Matthew M. Luecke, Deputy Secretary Michelle A. Smith, Assistant Secretary Mark E. Van Der Weide, General Counsel Michael Held, Deputy General Counsel Trevor A. Reeve, Economist Stacey Tevlin, Economist Beth Anne Wilson, Economist Shaghil Ahmed, David Altig, Kartik B. Athreya, Brian M. Doyle, Rochelle M. Edge, Eric M. Engen, Beverly Hirtle, and William Wascher, Associate Economists Lorie K. Logan, Manager, System Open Market Account Patricia Zobel, Deputy Manager, System Open Market Account Joshua Gallin, Special Adviser to the Chair, Division of Board Members, Board of Governors William F. Bassett, Antulio N. Bomfim, Wendy E. Dunn, Burcu Duygan-Bump, Jane E. Ihrig, Kurt F. Lewis, and Chiara Scotti, Special Advisers to the Board, Division of Board Members, Board of Governors John J. Stevens, Senior Associate Director, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors; Gretchen C. Weinbach, Senior Associate Director, Division of Monetary Affairs, Board of Governors Ellen E. Meade and Robert J. Tetlow, Senior Advisers, Division of Monetary Affairs, Board of Governors; Steven A. Sharpe, Senior Adviser, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors Marnie Gillis DeBoer and Min Wei, Associate Directors, Division of Monetary Affairs, Board of Governors; Andrew Figura, Associate Director, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors 1 The Federal Open Market Committee is referenced as the  FOMC  and the  Committee  in these minutes. 2 Attended through the discussion of developments in finan- cial markets and open market operations. _____________________________________________________________________________________________Page 1 Eric C. Engstrom, Deputy Associate Director, Division of Monetary Affairs, Board of Governors; Jeffrey D. Walker,2 Deputy Associate Director, Division of Reserve Bank Operations and Payment Systems, Board of Governors Jennifer Gallagher, Special Assistant to the Board, Division of Board Members, Board of Governors Brian J. Bonis, Assistant Director, Division of Monetary Affairs, Board of Governors Penelope A. Beattie, Section Chief, Office of the Secretary, Board of Governors Mark A. Carlson, Senior Economic Project Manager, Division of Monetary Affairs, Board of Governors David H. Small, Project Manager, Division of Monetary Affairs, Board of Governors Michele Cavallo, Olesya Grishchenko, Horacio Sapriza, and Fabian Winkler, Principal Economists, Division of Monetary Affairs, Board of Governors; Pablo Cuba-Borda, Principal Economist, Division of International Finance, Board of Governors; Andrew Paciorek, Principal Economist, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors Randall A. Williams, Lead Information Manager, Division of Monetary Affairs, Board of Governors Joseph W. Gruber, Daleep Singh, and Ellis W. Tallman, Executive Vice Presidents, Federal Reserve Banks of Kansas City, New York, and Cleveland, respectively David Andolfatto, Spencer Krane, Keith Sill, and Mark L.J. Wright, Senior Vice Presidents, Federal Reserve Banks of St. Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis, respectively Joe Peek, Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston James Dolmas, Economic Policy Advisor and Senior Research Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas 3 Committee organizational documents are available at www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/rules_authoriza- tions.htm. Andrew Foerster, Research Advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Annual Organizational Matters3 The agenda for this meeting reported that advices of the election of the following members and alternate mem- bers of the Federal Open Market Committee for a term beginning January 26, 2021, were received and that these individuals executed their oaths of office. The elected members and alternate members were as fol- lows: John C. Williams, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, with Helen E. Mucciolo, First Vice Presi- dent of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as alter- nate Thomas I. Barkin, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, with Eric Rosengren, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, as alternate Charles L. Evans, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, with Loretta J. Mester, President of the Fed- eral Reserve Bank of Cleveland, as alternate Raphael W. Bostic, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, with James Bullard, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, as alternate Mary C. Daly, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, with Esther L. George, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, as alternate By unanimous vote, the following officers of the Com- mittee were selected to serve until the selection of their successors at the first regularly scheduled meeting of the Committee in 2022: Chair Vice Chair Secretary Deputy Secretary Assistant Secretary Jerome H. Powell John C. Williams James A. Clouse Matthew M. Luecke Michelle A. Smith Mark E. Van Der Weide General Counsel Michael Held Richard M. Ashton Trevor Reeve Stacey Tevlin Beth Anne Wilson Deputy General Counsel Assistant General Counsel Economist Economist Economist Page 2Federal Open Market Committee_____________________________________________________________________________________________ Shaghil Ahmed David Altig Kartik B. Athreya Brian M. Doyle Rochelle M. Edge Eric M. Engen Beverly Hirtle Sylvain Leduc Anna Paulson William Wascher Associate Economists By unanimous vote, the Committee selected the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to execute transactions for the System Open Market Account (SOMA). By unanimous vote, the Committee selected Lorie K. Logan and Patricia Zobel to serve at the pleasure of the Committee as manager and deputy manager of the SOMA, respectively, on the understanding that these se- lections were subject to being satisfactory to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Secretary s note: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York subsequently sent advice that the manager and deputy manager selections indi- cated previously were satisfactory. By unanimous vote, the Committee voted to reaffirm without revision the Authorization for Domestic Open Market Operations, the Authorization for Foreign Cur- rency Operations, and the Foreign Currency Directive, as shown below. The Guidelines for the Conduct of System Open Market Operations in Federal-Agency Is- sues remained suspended. AUTHORIZATION FOR DOMESTIC OPEN MARKET OPERATIONS (As reaffirmed effective January 26, 2021) OPEN MARKET TRANSACTIONS 1. The Federal Open Market Committee (the  Com- mittee ) authorizes and directs the Federal Reserve Bank selected by the Committee to execute open market trans- actions (the  Selected Bank ), to the extent necessary to carry out the most recent domestic policy directive adopted by the Committee: A. To buy or sell in the open market securities that are direct obligations of, or fully guaranteed as to prin- cipal and interest by, the United States, and securities that are direct obligations of, or fully guaranteed as to principal and interest by, any agency of the United States, that are eligible for purchase or sale under Sec- tion 14(b) of the Federal Reserve Act ( Eligible Secu- rities ) for the System Open Market Account ( SOMA ): i. As an outright operation with securities dealers and foreign and international accounts maintained at the Selected Bank: on a same-day or deferred de- livery basis (including such transactions as are com- monly referred to as dollar rolls and coupon swaps) at market prices; or ii. As a temporary operation: on a same-day or deferred delivery basis, to purchase such Eligible Se- curities subject to an agreement to resell ( repo transactions ) or to sell such Eligible Securities sub- ject to an agreement to repurchase ( reverse repo transactions ) for a term of 65 business days or less, at rates that, unless otherwise authorized by the Committee, are determined by competitive bidding, after applying reasonable limitations on the volume of agreements with individual coun