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The Federal Reserve’s back-to-back interest rate hikes are expected to play a significant role in today’s Senate hearing with its Chairman, Jerome Powell, according to early excerpts from the Banking Committee Chairman’s opening statement. Sherrod Brown.
“(R)raising interest rates certainly won’t stop big business from exploiting all of these crises to drive up prices way beyond raising their costs,” the Ohio Democrat will say, according to text obtained by Fox News Digital.
Powell, who served in the Trump and Biden administrations, comes to Capitol Hill to testify about the Fed’s semi-annual monetary policy report — which suggested a bleak outlook for consumer spending trends and the nation’s workforce.
Powell’s Fed has decreed eight consecutive interest rate hikes in an effort to cool an economy that has been hot for much of President Joe Biden’s first term.
Brown is expected to press Powell on those increases while pointing to the record profits enjoyed by most companies — even despite decades of high inflation.
IRS ACCUSED OF USING ‘RACIAL EQUITY’ FOR AUDITS TARGETING WHITE AND ASIAN TAXPAYERS
Sherrod Brown is Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. (Kevin Dietsch/Pool via Reuters/File/Reuters Photos)
“Last year corporate profits hit an all-time high. Corporate PR chiefs assure us that these companies just had to raise prices. Their costs are rising, workers just want to be overpaid , they have no other choice, they tell us.Yet when you look at their profits, their executive salaries and their stock buyback plans, it certainly doesn’t seem like the companies have exhausted all alternatives. available,” said the president.
Excerpts also show that he will sympathize with ordinary Americans struggling with the burden of high prices. The latest inflation data shows the consumer price index rose 6.4% from a year earlier, beating economists’ expectations.
“Prices are still too high in many parts of the economy. And we all know who feels it the most when the cost of groceries, rent and gas go up – it’s not the economic pundits who speak to us about discipline and stability,” Brown said. say.
IRS ACCUSED OF USING ‘RACIAL EQUITY’ FOR AUDITS TARGETING WHITE AND ASIAN TAXPAYERS
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies before the Senate on Tuesday and the House on Wednesday. (Graeme Jennings/Pool via Reuters/File)
Under Powell, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates eight times in an effort to curb the inflation that has plagued much of President Biden’s tenure.
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“It’s the people who work by the hour to make ends meet. It’s the seniors on fixed incomes and social security. It’s everyone who gets their income from a paycheck every month – not an investment portfolio. These are also the same Americans who stand to lose the most if the Fed’s actions to curb inflation go too far.”
He will also ask Powell to explore other avenues to cool inflation than raising rates.
“Of course, there are times when the Fed has to act. We can’t allow inflation to take hold. We’ve seen encouraging signs that aren’t happening. And there are other ways to do it. lower prices. Instead of reducing demand – again, making people poorer, laying people off, denying workers raises – we can speed up and strengthen our supply chains. We can bring critical manufacturing industries back to the United States. We can rebuild our infrastructure,” Brown’s opening statement read.