During a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) asked Powell if he knew how many Americans would lose their jobs this year if the Fed continues on its current path.
Powell said he didn’t have the numbers, adding that higher unemployment is not an “intended consequence” of rate hikes.
“But it is. And it’s in your report. That would be about 2 million people who would lose their jobs,” Warren said. “If you could speak directly to the 2 million hardworking people who have decent jobs today who you’re planning to get fired over the next year, what would you say to them? How would you explain your view that they need to lose their jobs?”
“I would explain to people more broadly that inflation is extremely high, and it’s hurting the working people of this country badly, all of them, not just 2 million … we are taking the only measures we have to bring inflation down,” Powell responded.
“Will working people be better off if we just walk away from our jobs and inflation remains 5 or 6 percent?” he added.
While Democrats have been the most vocal critics of the Fed’s plan to raise interest rates to slow the economy and reduce demand for goods and services, Republicans chimed in too.
“When you’re slowing the economy, you’re trying to put people out of work. That’s your job, is it not?” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told Powell on Tuesday.
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
