Federal debt doesn’t affect our month-to-month policy decisions

“Federal financial policy, debt, doesn’t affect our month-to-month policy decisions,” Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell said while testifying about the Semi-Annual Monetary Policy Report before the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday.

Key takeaways

“Ample reserves enable banks to keep lending through stress.”

“Return to scarce reserves would not save money.”

“Unwinding ample reserves would take years.”

“Enormous benefits of having the Dollar as the global reserve currency.”

“Dollar remains reserve currency, it’s a durable equilibrium, expect it to last for a long time to come.”

“Bond market is functioning well.”

“Inflation expectations have come down a bit from April.”

“On USD weakness, markets have been digesting an unusually challenging set of circumstance.”

Market reaction

These comments don’t seem to be having a noticeable impact on the US Dollar’s (USD) valuation. At the time of press, the USD Index was virtually unchanged on the day at 98.00.