Fed's Goolsbee says tariffs creating 'complicated environment' for policy

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee warned that trade tariffs are creating significant challenges for the U.S. central bank as it seeks to understand where inflation is going.

“Tariffs are supposed to be a one-and-done impact on prices. They drive up prices, but they're not supposed to keep driving up prices,” Goolsbee said on the Rapid Response podcast.

But now, “we're in this environment where we've had a tariff, and the prices went up, and then another tariff, and the prices go up, and then another tariff,” and then court action to unwind some of the tariffs, he said.

“That's a complicated environment” for the central bank, he said.