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federal reserve reporter for the associated press. you are here to talk about the federal reserve action yesterday they foresee three interest rate cuts this year. what did the board decide?gues't decide to do a lot yesterday but the news was that iftz you sdhre rate cut forecast for this year and that was a little up in the air because there been a couple of i still rising a bit faster than they would like to see and probably most americans would like to see. the concern was whether they those rate cuts. they are looking at cutting rates as inflation does come from the peak of summer, 2022. there is a little worry on wall street they might pull back me of t f powell made clear that

while they are a little worried about some of this inflation in , as he put it, that they will be of to cut rates later this year. host: why are they a little bit concerned and not overly concerned? where do they see inflation take up? guest: you saw it take up in january and february withices a, some of it was in other services such as the car insurance is still a big thing. you have more cars and car prices went up a lot during this inflationary episodes of the cost to ensure them is rising. i think theyel, chair powell suggested some of this was a temporary uptick or seasonal adjustment with the numbers. months he says we should see inflation come back down a bit in terms of the growth of consumer prices coming down to the lower levels we saw

in the second half of last year which is what gave them the optimism they might be able to cut this year. host: what was the reaction from wall street? guest: it was very positive. you saw the indexes close at record highs. er that they will cut in the course of lowering interest rates in general that can help stock prices. egree. yes, share prices went up a lot yesterday as soon as that press ress conference and after. host: what happens when the federal reserve starts look -- making cuts to the interest rates? guest: end over time, it should help consumers. you should see lower mortgage rates, lower rates on auto loans , card rates which are near record highs and those should come down so that's a benefit to consumers. business loans also

it could give a little bit of a boost to the economy. it should keep -- the economy is growing now with low unemployment so hopefully if they are able to implement those rate cuts, that would keep the economy growing the way it is now. host■f as jerome powell and the federal reserve board landed this plane and avoided a recession? guest: so far, yes. that seems to be what is happening and that's good news. it's not what was expected if you go back to 20 to, inflation was still very high and there was an expectation that the fed would have to raise rates and they would cause arecr interest rates would cause people to pull back on spending so much that we would have a downturn. inea eas they raise rates, consumers continue to spend. there were some pullbacks in areas like housing, home sales fell, car sales did so.

overall, the economy continued to grow and companies continued to hire. there is that the so-called soft landing where we would get inflation back down to the 2% target without a recession, so far we are on track for that. chair powell want the clear victory yet but so far, we are on track for that. host: we want to invite our viewers to join us in this conversation and tell us where you see the economy where you live. democrats dial in at (202) 748-8000 republicans (202) 748-8001, an independents (202) 748-8002 and you can also text us) 748-8003. join us on facebook or you can also join us on x, just post @ c-span. what about food prices? ■tis there anything the federal

reserve can do about food prices in the uptick that consumers have seen since the pandemic? guest:■ probably much more than they been able to do so far. grocery prices are as much a 25 percen■ot higher than they before the pandemic. even though the increases have come down the past year, they are only up around 1% but that's still a lotrs ago. what we have seen is consumers pushing back a bit. some of the big food companies have talked a prices a fair amon the past couple years and they've seen some of their sales drop off with people going more to private■wsome of the bigger s like kraft, heinz, proctoring gamble about not been able to raise prices. there may still be a little bit of that going down in the hope

is that people will continue to get pay raises on average in the past year or soame have gotten e increases that outpace the price hikes. i think a lot of people will raises to feel like they've caught up. bringing prices back downn't rey want that. host: they are not talking about lowering prices but not raising them because we are not in a recession. guest: that's right and even though wage increases are slowing as well which reduces some of the inflationary pressure, wages on average are still rising bitasey were beforf that continues, the goal is for people to feel they can afford a lot of thi stuff back to something close to where was before. host: we will get to your calls in a minute but i want to show you what the federal reserve chair jerome powl say when he spoke to reporters

yesterday after the board met. [video clip] thehe committee decided in target range for the federal funds rate at 5.25 percent-5.5 percent and continue the process of significant reit -- significantly reducing her scurries holding. as tightness as eased in progress on inflation has continued, the risk to achieng to better balance. we believe our policy rate is likely at its peak for this tightening cycle. if the economy evolves broadly as expected, it will likely be appropriate to begin dialing back policy restraint at some point this year. ■kthe economic outlook is uncertain however and we remain highly attentive to inflation risks. werepared to maintain the current target range for the federal funds rate for longer if appropriate. we know that reducing policy restraint too soon or too much

camry -- can result in a reverse on the progress on inflation and ultimately require even tighter policy to get inflation back to 2%.at the same time, reducing policy restraint too late or too little good unduly weaken economic activity and employment in considering any adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate. we will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving ■houtlook and the balance of risks. the committee does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater cn is moving susy down toward 2%. host: that was the federal reserve chair yesterday. we have the economics and federal reserve reporter with the associated press. he will take your questions and comments on the economy so we will go to ron in tacoma park, maryland, independent. caller: good morning, c-span and congratulations on your 45th anniversary. host:■haller: i'm calling this g

about hr 2513 which is the was passed in 2021 which impacts sses and 70.4 millionoyed freelancers, 9.6 million of them are self-employed. with 97% of these small businesses, they are required to file this(■eport, it went into effect january 1 of 2024. if you were incorporated before that date, you haveif you incors after january 1, you only have 90 days to start at $500 perú dy up to $10,000 and it's two years of federal jail time. le can get more information by going to positive changepc

.com. i want to know ifoh you can get someone from the national small business association who filed a federal lawit on march 1, 2024 and struck down this and declared it unconstitutional and there has been some coverage but very littleoverage. if you could get someone from the national small business association to speak to this because the ruling is that it only the 65,000 members. 32 million small businesses and people who have airbnb's will be impacted by this law. host: do you have any thoughts on that? guest: thereas a big uptick in new businesses and people filing for new companies including ones that hire people. that's been a positive trend in

the economy since the pandemic sometimes out of necessity, people have struckx(utown. that's kept a lot of people employed and potentially could bring a lot of innovation into the economy so hopefullyha contf new businesses. host: john in pennsylvania, republican, your next. caller: thank you for taking mys coming under control but from a government spending standpoint, my local township taxes went up. even if inflation is coming down, the government spending, i don't know if that's part of the basket how they determine inflation. it would be interesting to hear your comments regarding that. host: interesting point. government spending. guest: it's not really part of the inflation basket. it doesn't affect the numbers

but some economist worry that more government spending does create and can help boost demand in the economy and that can potentially keep inflation higher. other people point out --ode wet through and we are still sorting out has mostly been seen as a supply driven situation where we had the supply chainparts, you's on store shelves and that is what drove most of the inflation we have seen. sorted out, that's how inflation has come down without even the significant -- without any loss of jobs or the recession thagovg a lot of people watch to see it that keeps the economy may be growing faster than it can and potentially contribute into inflation. host: rayshard in maryland, democratic caller, good morning. caller:good to see you on tv, my

brother. chris and i have been going to the same church for mianhe is ao see him. great to see you this morning. question is about the impact of housing prices on inflation. rero area, housing prices are through the roof and thewif as time goes on but we are not the only metro area in the country facing this. there are metro areas throughout the where is actually decreasing like charlotte and austin, texas. they are building warehousing as well which is something a lot of people are resistant to.

there is a big thing now about . could you comment on the impact of housing costs othe drivers of inflation? i will have to pick your brain more during coffee hour. guest: thank you and gd to hear from you. shelter is the overall category including home prices, cost hot has continued to be a big driver of inflation. if you factor that out of the data come inflation would be back down below the federal reserve 2% target. housing is definitely a big driver and rents have been coming down. the growth rate of rent has been coming down although in some rents themselves have declined.

as you noted, because people are building more apartmentsilding g nationwide, we are seeing almost a record number of new apartments coming online. during the pandemic of a peo■ple out and have more space so there was more demand which is what initially drove up a lot of the rents. has been some response in terms of more apartment construction. ontinue. the more that brings down the cost of rent, is taking some time to flow into the government data which is one reason why you still see inflation above 2% because the rental prices that e still rising. if you look at what the private companies measuring it like zullo and apartment list, you can goe that data and they are seeing the new rents for new leases actually coming down, nuts is growing more slowly. as that feeds into the government data, the hope is

that will bring inflation down further and there will be more housg which is a way to do that. host: let's go to christina in cedar rapids, iowa, independent caller. caller: hi there. i just wanted to touch base on a couple of things. we are at an historical time. we are not going back to the old ways. we will have a new world but i don't know if the american people have thought about this what kind of world do we want? right now what we are getting, we are getting a government that will flip the whole country. i think it'we keep going down td we will keep taking it apart and

head toward human extinction. all we have now is war, we have literally an invasion at our people that can't trust each other which, when i grew up, didn't matter what side you were on. you are still adult enough to be able to sit down and talk. i didn't start watching c-span apparent you've got a republican and a democratic side and these people that are in these groups go and the act and they do all this stuff but then they blame it on the party where they blame it on trump where they blame it on biden. the problem here need to take individual accountability. host: all right, i want to share stephen's question in michigan. guest: that's right.

we don't want to blame it all on the consumer. there's only so mucheo to buy. i think we are seeing a lot of what happened in the pandemic as well particularly as we came out there were stimulus checks and other government support and some higher pay. people had a lot of money and ecause they were cooped up for a long time during the pandemic. one of the ways as companies afford it. to some degree, people could pay the higher prices and some say the companies took advantageer's a natural supply and demand reaction. yes, as some of that poandemic spending spree wears off, so far, we are headed in a direction where companies are seeing they cannot raise past couple of years and that will contribute ideally to bring you down inflation further.

host: here is robert on x guest: that's a good question. determined by the free market. the fed has its own rate which is short-term rate that technically is paid by banks. that rate influencesther rates and influences the rate on the 10 year bond issued by the federal government and that as a benchmark rate that then there is a role for the free market. even when the fed changes its rate, it can have a delay or a can takeim flow through the financial markets because there are market forces but also act. the fedtself decides based on various complicated ideas around how hike rates need to slow spending and they have sometimes various rules they use as guides.

it is more art than science on their end. there is still a role fo some free-market influence as well. host: what sort of indicators is the fed watching to have the confidence to start cutting interest rates? guest: fed chair powell has made clear that they are very data inflation. there are a couple of different measures of that. the hope is that will be enough to give them the confidence to cut rates. they will certainly look at jobs and unemployment as well. they■= have what they call a dul mandate so not only are they mandated by congress to keep prices stable and bring them down but they are also expected to kee h unemployment and helped engineer an economy with maximum employment. they will be looking at jobs as ns that people are getting laid off in the unappointed rate goes up, that

would encourage them to cut rates. the hope is that inflation by itself comes down and continues to do so even as the economy continues to do well. what i think has incurs a lot of r yesterday that even as the economy, if it continues to grow and hiring continues to happen, as long as an ration comesstillt this year. host: republican in ohio, good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. three really quick points and they tie in together. let's start out with a question -- what to the following countries have in common? syria, argentina, iran, venezuela, nigeria, turkey and the answer is that thee hyperi. speaking of hyperinflation, our national debt now increases by about $1 trillion every 100 days. that puts us in a pickle. jerome powell and janet yellen

haveki)z no way out. if they raise interest rates, they're going to raise interest on our debt which will increase faster. if they going to give people moe money, more jobs and increase inflation that way through spending. what is your guest comment on that? guest: that's right, think jerome powell will make decisions about interest rates withoutsarily concerned about how that affects the debt. the higher rates that we have seen already in the fed has said they t■7hi■■nk ty are done hikig rates, they are at the peak of their interest rates for now. that has increased interest cost to the government. challenge but chair powell has made clear as most fed chair is due that theydecise up to elected officials and not them. chair powell has said he thinks

the deficit is not sustainable and is something the government, congress and the white house should deal with. host: the unemployment rate in february was 3.9%. it increase from 3.7% in january. what was that a sign of? guest: it's a sign of potentially some people worry about some so-called cracks in the labor market. we have ilnd there were a number of jobs added in february. it's complicated the way the government measures these things. sometimethent directions and med use on february. the economy added jobs we still saw a rise in the unemployment rate. chair powell said yesterday that he still sees the job market is relatively healthy. ■( steady jobs added in the on employment rate is still low by historic

standards. atch. at the bottom, it was 3.4% about a year ago. it has come up since then. it is something to watch even though most indicators for example there is a weekly measure of jobless claims which is how any people have been laid off and are seeking on employmenthc+enittty low, very low. it suggests layoffs are not -- are still very low historically. host: columbus,o, republican. caller: hi, how are you doing today? host: good morning. caller: good morning. ■f is, as a republican and a lifelong republican, some people don't think it but i am african-american as well.

i live in a two-party household and my mom was a democrat my dad was a republican. we are still at that same point with my wife was a democrat and i'a republ.we usually cancer ea- cancel each other out. my■9 cf the disinformation from my party to themaga coalition's we an our economy now than ever before and it's joe biden's fault. right now a very economy, look at the stock market. it's doing really well which is a benefit for all americans that are invested in the stock market. if you have a 401(k) or an ira,

where ever are invested, you're benefiting from this. the current party is trying to distract us and say the economy is horrible. it's not. it really isn't. there is job creation, there is increased wealth, there is increased consumer spending. it's all these things that are can tripping to th economy. one thing about immigration is, we need immigration and border to s economy. without immigrants with the amount of people that are born each year in the uniteds, without immigrants we would not be able to expand our economy.

guest: it has been the subject, immigration has been the subject ong economists that they have looked at. there is a suggestion that immigration has been higher than people expected and that has help to fill jobs that are other costs and have opinions about this bk more immigration has helped companies fill jobs and expand and we have heard oxrpandemic and those cf got away. there is this idea and chairman powell has talked about this that more immigration has helped people fill jobs and that has helped the economy grow without creating■p issues.

with more people able to■(! work that tells me that demand does help the economy grow. host: you can follow more ofrtím >> every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations. shop now, anytime, at c-spanshop.org.