Rafael Bostic

And others at the lower end of the income distribution are

making substitutions to try to manage it as you go along.

Look, you know that consumer sentiment is very low.

It's terrible.

Particularly when you look at the aggregate economy output, and it's above potential.

People should be happy in this environment, but they're not.

And it's the stress that I think is overlaying a lot of that.

because there isn't one just generic consumer.

I think you have some consumers who are spending a lot, a lot, and then you have other consumers who are trying to spend as little as possible.

And because our economy is skewed to where much of GDP

and aggregate output is driven by spending by the upper percentiles, you get to a number that is higher than you might otherwise think.

It's another one of the reasons why this is a really difficult time

to be a central banker.

Sorry.

I don't know if the Fed has happy hours, but maybe that, too.

Yeah, those are Vegas times, so not a lot to talk about those.

So our tagline is an economy that works for everyone.

Right.

And so we need to understand how every person, wherever they are, is experiencing the economy.

And then how does that range of experiences influence where we think policy needs to go?