Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmid said inflation was running too hot and the central bank still had the tools and responsibility to bring it down, according to Bloomberg and CNBC. Source Source
Speaking to a credit union conference in Hawaii on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2026, Schmid said inflation was “uncomfortably above the 2% price stability target, and moving in the wrong direction,” according to CNBC. Source
That’s a warning, not a rate announcement. Schmid did not specifically call for additional rate hikes, and he was not a voting member of the Fed’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee in 2026, CNBC reported. Source
Referring to Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s August remarks, Schmid said “the Fed has some work to do on inflation, and, unfortunately, our work has only gotten harder since then,” according to Bloomberg. Source
AI demand isn’t interest-rate-proof, in his view
Schmid pushed back on the idea that repeated supply shocks put inflation beyond the Fed’s reach. “It is in the context of strong demand that a disruption to supply drives up prices,” he said, according to CNBC. The Fed can address inflation by influencing demand, he argued. Source
In Schmid’s telling, demand tied to the artificial intelligence buildout doesn’t get an exemption from monetary policy, either. Source
The Fed doesn’t need a response from any particular category of prices, including AI-related technology goods, to meet its inflation target, Schmid said, according to CNBC. Source
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