from weta studios in Washington
and in the west from the Walter
Cronkite school of journalism at
Arizona state university.
Judy: Federal reserve chairman
Jerome Powell is part of a white
house push and at addressing the
high inflation rate.
I spoke with the director of
white house national council.
What can you tell us about the
conversation between the
president and chairman Powell?
>> Well, they had a productive
meeting.
What the president communicated
to the chairman was that he not
only respects the Independence
of the federal reserve that he
intends to honor it and give the
federal reserve the space it
needs to tackle inflation.
The fed fed has a primary role
in fighting inflation, and it is
well on its way to do that, and
the president wanted to be clear
that unlike some of his
predecessors, he was going to
respect their Independence.
>> Is that part of a strategy
for the president to in effect
shift responsibility to the fed
for inflation?
>> No, it is not about
responsibility.
It is about fighting inflation
in a responsible way.
The president laid out a plan.
The first element of that is to
give the fed the space it needs.
Importantly, that has not always
been the case.
That was not true with the prior
president, and when you have a
president that seeks to
politicize the fed, you will get
worse economic outcomes, but the
president is also focused on
steps that he can take and can
work with congress to take to
lower costs for families to try
to make things more affordable
for families during this
transition and also to lower the
federal deficit.
We know if we lower the federal
deficit, that will ease price
pressures in the economy.
This is about the president
saying his top priority is
tackling inflation.
One of the things he can do is
strengthen the Independence of
the fed rather than politicize
it.
Judy: Did the men also discuss
other steps a president can
take?
We saw that "Wall Street
journal" op-ed the president
wrote that him out today.
He talked about supply chains
and infrastructure.
I'm asking because these things
may be important in the long
run.
They are not intended to help
inflation in the short one,
though, are they?
>> The meeting was broad ranging
and talked about a range of
topics including the current and
future economic -- outlook, but
when you talk about the types of
steps intended to address the
cost of gas at the pump as well
as groceries, the president is
focused on both steps we can
take that are immediate and the
steps that are medium-term, so
something like releasing barrels
from the strategic petroleum
reserve -- that happens right
away.
The president has directed that
happened now.
Something like directing farmers
to grow more crops this year is
something that would help to
ease food prices right now, but
you are absolutely right -- some
of these steps are more
medium-term, but the sooner we
take them, the more impact we
can have on the economy.
Building affordable housing will
take months to do, but if we
start now as the president
directed, we will see more
easing up housing prices over
the course of the gear and into
next.
We are focused on the
medium-term.
Judy: The average gas price is
more than $4.60 a gallon.
>> Absolutely.
The president knows that is on
the minds of typical families as
they pull up to the gas pump,
and it is creating anxieties as
well.
This is an unfortunate
consequence of Putin's decision
to invade Ukraine.
You can see from when Putin
began amassing troops on the
border of Ukraine until now, the
price of gas is up.
The actions we have taken are
focused on trying to keep Putin
from filling his war machine
with revenues from oil and gas,
but at the same time, we are
trying to boost supplies outside
of Russia.
That is what the strategic
petroleum reserve is about and
that's why the president is
focused on this constant
diplomacy of working with
European allies and other
oil-producing countries around
the world.
Judy: As you know well, there
are economists who were saying
well over a year ago that
inflation was looming and it was
coming.
One of those was former treasury
secretary Larry Summers.
Is the white house -- is the
president now acknowledging that
he was late -- the white house
was late to address inflation?
>> I think if you look out on
the global landscape right now,
it is clear that inflation is a
global problem.
We saw inflation in the Eurozone
hit 8.1% last month.
We saw in the U.K., inflation
hit 9%, and that is because the
principal drivers are a pandemic
shutting the economy down now
compounded by Putin's invasion
of Ukraine.
If you look around the globe,
you will see the United States
is actually well-positioned to
address prices had on because of
the strength of our economic
recovery.
We have seen the historic labor
market recovery.
We have record business
investment, new business
creation right now, and
household balance sheets are
doing pretty well.
That is a function of the
strength of this recovery.
We do now have the tools to take
on the price increases better.
Judy: Would it have been better
if the white house had seen this
sooner?
>> If you look at the steps we
took, they helped to generate
this historically strong
recovery, and most analysts
looked at this as the principal
driver of inflation was not
fiscal policy but was instead
the issues I just addressed.
Where we find yourselves now,
the United States has those
economic strains behind us.
We are able to focus on fighting
those price increases, and I
think that is with the president
is focused on now -- how can we
make progress?
How can we continue to build on
these historic gains?
If we focus on policy, there's
no reason we cannot.
Judy: Thank you very much.