Jeffrey Schmid on interest rates

About Jeffrey Schmid

Kansas City Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Schmid has repeatedly stated his preference for keeping interest rates unchanged, citing persistent inflation. In a January 2026 speech, he said his preference at recent Federal Open Market Committee meetings was to leave the policy rate unchanged, arguing that lowering rates could "do more harm to the inflation side of our mandate than benefit on the employment side." He described the labor market as a "low fire, low hire" environment and said he saw "little reason at this point to further lower the policy rate." Throughout 2025, Schmid characterized monetary policy as "modestly restrictive" and said he was "still trying to find what's being inhibited in the economy from where our policy rate is today." He stated that inflation was "trending closer to three than two" and that the "last mile" of bringing it to the Fed's 2% target was "pretty hard." Schmid has also addressed the topic of Federal Reserve independence. In January 2026, he said an independent central bank is "very important to the nature of managing this amazing economy." In August 2025, when asked about political pressure on the Fed, he said the conversation about independence is "always an important one" and that "great steel is tested by fire." He added that it is more important for the American public to understand what the Fed does. On the banking system, Schmid said in October 2024 that "by and large the banking industry... the numbers look pretty good" and that he did not see "any black clouds forming." He has also expressed interest in moving toward more real-time data sets for policy decisions and in developing a clear regulatory framework for stablecoins.

Profile compiled from Jeffrey Schmid's verified public interviews and appearances. See all quotes & transcripts →