Christopher J. Wolfe, Chief Investment Officer of First Republic Private Wealth Management, appeared on CBS News to share his thoughts on the Fed raising interest rates for the first time in three years.
Read below for a full transcript of the conversation.
Speaker 1:
The Federal Reserve is set to begin raising interest rates for the first time in three years, likely beginning in March.
Speaker 2:
I think there’s quite a bit of room to raise interest rates without threatening the labor market.
Speaker 1:
It comes as the Fed focuses on fighting the highest spike in inflation in decades and amid concerns about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain backups.
Christopher J. Wolfe:
It’s a little bit of a “good news and not so good news” story. The good news is that a number of things are happening in the economy: higher wages and kind of that wage growth is helping to drive consumption. Raising interest rates means everything from mortgage rates to credit card rates to auto loan rates are all gonna go up.
Speaker 1:
Finance expert Christopher Wolfe says it could a year to get inflation under control.
Christopher J. Wolfe:
It’s just gonna take a long time to put people in jobs, to move the goods from one place to another, and ultimately get them back, uh, get the country back to a place where things appear more normal.
Speaker 1:
The Federal Reserve chairman said the economic outlook still remains highly uncertain, but the Federal Bank will remain nimble and attentive to risk.
Speaker 2:
We’re prepared to use our tools to assure that higher inflation does not become entrenched.
President Joe Biden:
We face some real challenges. We’ve got to get prices in check and for working people out there.
Speaker 1:
President Biden met with private sector CEOs at the White House Wednesday to discuss how his policy proposals could help grow the economy and bring down inflation. Naomi Ruchim, CBS News, New York.
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