Powell Sees Resilient Economy, Urges Fed to Stay Apolitical (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Jerome Powell, he sounded pretty optimistic about the economy. He talked about how fast GDP is expected to be. He noted that consumer spending has been resilient and that the economy has been able to absorb all these different shocks from historically high tariffs. He noted, first of all, a lot of other countries have not retaliated against the president's tariffs. There's other companies that are absorbing the initial hit from tariffs, and they're not really all being passed on to consumers. And then there's also the fact that the announced tariffs have not been nearly as bad as what was originally announced by the president. Now, during the press conference, I had a chance to ask Fed Chair Powell what his advice would be to his successor.

[00:00:41] Speaker 2: Honestly, I'd say a couple of things. One is, you know, stay out of elected politics. Don't get pulled into elected politics. Don't do it.

[00:00:52] Speaker 1: So put it all together. This is a Fed that doesn't sound as worried about the economy, doesn't sound as worried about the job market. They're relieved that the inflation hit hasn't been worse. And they are fiercely protective over their independence from political interference.