Mike McKee

We're not seeing job gains as the numbers this morning showed.

ADP is out with its monthly estimate of jobs created in the month of December.

41,000, they say.

Annual pay up 4.4%.

The change in private employment, of course, is 41,000.

They don't measure what's happening with government.

Well, good morning, Steve.

Thank you for joining us on this non-Jobs Day, Jobs Day.

We get no government primary economic data because of the shutdown right now.

So let me start by asking, if that continues, as a member of the Open Market Committee, would you feel comfortable voting for a significant cut in interest rates if you don't have data on employment and on inflation?

Well, despite what the president says, as you well know, inflation is rising.

Food prices are up.

Gasoline prices higher than when he took office.

Those are the prices that Americans notice and hate.

So isn't it a risk to cut rates significantly in an...

regime where inflation is rising?

Well, we were talking before we came on about your view of our start, the neutral rate.

We've got inflation running at basically 3%.

You've got unemployment at 4.3%, which is historically very low.

The Atlanta Fed says we're growing 3.8% or grew 3.8% in the third quarter.