Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank is taking a more cautious approach to the effects of President Trump’s tariff increases than it did in 2019 because recent increases in tariff rates are much larger and because the economy is coming off a period of much higher inflation.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell had plenty of opportunities Tuesday to tell lawmakers definitively the central bank will cut interest rates soon. He didn’t take any of them.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was back on Capitol Hill for his second day of testimony. This time he was in front of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Powell has said recent economic data would likely have justified cutting interest rates,

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell resumed two days of congressional testimony on Wednesday, appearing before the Senate Banking Committee after scrutiny before a House panel the day before that focused on the Fed's concerns that the Trump administration's tariff plans will raise inflation.

Waller highlighted that inflation has been running close to the Fed’s 2% target, and said the current rate setting (targeting 4.25%-4.5%) is 1.25 to 1.5 percentage points above neutral -- in other words,