speeches · January 12, 2021
Regional President Speech
James Bullard · President
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From the President
Bullard Discusses Monetary Policy, In�ation Pressures
during Reuters Forum
January 13, 2021
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard shared his views on a variety of topics in a moderated
discussion during the Reuters Next virtual forum. He spoke about several aspects of Fed
policy, the arrival of vaccines, the possibility of higher in�ation, and more.
Bullard noted that the Fed acted very quickly in response to the COVID-19 crisis. The
emergency lending programs stemmed an incipient �nancial crisis that could’ve occurred
on top of the pandemic, he said.
On the health crisis, Bullard cited projections that show fatalities per day declining as the
vaccine is rolled out. Declining fatalities will have big rami�cations for the economy, and
people will see the light at the end of the tunnel for the pandemic, he said.
Regarding the Fed’s balance sheet policy, Bullard noted that the FOMC has agreed on statecontingent (or data-dependent) language that says how long asset purchases will continue at
the current pace—i.e., the pace will continue until substantial further progress has been
made toward the maximum employment and price stability goals.
Bullard also said that the conditions are good for generating in�ation, and noted that three
theories on what determines in�ation over the medium term are all pointing in the same
direction. He cited less pre-emptive policy from the Fed than in the past, the large size of
�scal de�cits, and the outlook for a hot economy.
Cite this document
APA
James Bullard (2021, January 12). Regional President Speech. Speeches, Federal Reserve. https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/regional_speeche_20210113_james_bullard
BibTeX
@misc{wtfs_regional_speeche_20210113_james_bullard,
author = {James Bullard},
title = {Regional President Speech},
year = {2021},
month = {Jan},
howpublished = {Speeches, Federal Reserve},
url = {https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/regional_speeche_20210113_james_bullard},
note = {Retrieved via When the Fed Speaks corpus}
}