Susan Collins

But it's going to be about balancing those to really offset our risks and focus on both sides of that mandate.

Yeah, absolutely.

Because I do think that complementing all of the statistical analysis that we are always, you know, I'm a total data geek, right?

You got to be in this role.

with what we're hearing is really important.

And what I'm hearing is pretty consistent with what I'm seeing in the data, actually.

And so on the labor market side, while the job growth has certainly slowed, it's somewhat more concentrated, at the same time, a number of those indicators are quite healthy.

And so on that side of it, I think that there are arguments for taking a bit more time

but I'm very focused on how those downside risks are evolving.

And then on the inflation side, what I'm hearing is that early days in terms of the impact of tariffs coming through into prices over time for a number of different reasons.

So what I'm hearing from firms around my district, which is most of New England, and what we're seeing in the data as we do that analysis at the Boston Fed are pretty much telling a similar story from that context.

Well, you know, that underlying inflation, I was quite confident a year ago that that trajectory was back down to restoring price stability.

And in terms of what I hear around the district, high price level and concern about inflation is one of the number one things that I hear about, which is one of the reasons I'm so focused on the importance.

of that side of the mandate, as well as maximum employment.

But you know, the tariff impacts are significant, and we have done analysis in the Boston Fed, understanding that it's not just direct imports, but the range of goods and services that rely on imported intermediate goods as well.

A much broader range, it would surprise many people how many kinds of services actually use imported intermediates as part of what's happening there.

And so we are anticipating that over the next couple of quarters, so the rest of this year into early next year,

Inflation is going to remain elevated.

And then my baseline would be it would start to come back down.

But I don't rule out a larger and more persistent impact.