Chicago Fed President Goolsbee tells CNBC inflation is still too high, declines to forecast interest-rate path

Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said on CNBC on June 25 that inflation is still “too high,” while declining to speculate about where U.S. interest rates will go next. The comments were delivered during a live interview that aired from Goolsbee’s home district.

Goolsbee’s remarks focused on the Fed’s policy environment, emphasizing that inflation has not yet fallen to a level that would satisfy policymakers’ goals. In the interview, he did not offer a timeline for improvement or provide a direct forecast of the policy rate.

When asked to comment on Kevin Warsh, a former Federal Reserve governor and a public figure in economic-policy debates, Goolsbee said Warsh is “a serious guy.” The exchange did not include additional detail in the CNBC report about any specific policy agreement or disagreement between the two.

The interview also underscored limits on public guidance, as Goolsbee declined to predict the future direction of interest rates. Instead, he conveyed that the setting for policy decisions depends on how inflation and broader economic conditions evolve, according to the way he framed the current environment on air.

Because central bank policy decisions depend on incoming data and the internal deliberations of the Federal Reserve’s decision-making bodies, Goolsbee’s refusal to forecast the rate path reflects a common approach among officials who aim to avoid preempting upcoming policy discussions.

At the same time, the remarks about inflation being too high reinforce that price stability remains a central concern in Fed communications. Even without a stated path for rates, the message is directed at households and businesses that have to plan spending and borrowing costs under conditions shaped by monetary policy.

Goolsbee’s June 25 interview adds to the public record of how Fed officials discuss inflation risk and communication discipline. The next opportunity for investors and the public to interpret the Fed’s direction will be when policymakers provide further guidance in formal settings, rather than speculative statements in interviews.