Fed chief Powell has warned of economic pain. In York, Pa., he heard all about it
By Howard Schneider
YORK, Pennsylvania (Reuters) -After helping build a floor under the economy during the pandemic only to put a squeeze on it as inflation soared, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Monday faced a public he'd warned would go through painful times as the central bank hiked interest rates.
On a day tour of York, Pennsylvania, once a thriving manufacturing town about 100 miles west of Philadelphia that local officials tout as undergoing a «fledgling renaissance,» Powell got an earful from residents and community and business leaders fretful about inflation and eager for greater certainty about what lies ahead.
Families are «squeezing to make ends meet,» caught between rising prices and a lack of accessible child care, Kim Bracey, chief executive of the YWCA York, told Powell. Families are often paying for child care, when it is available, on credit cards, and for those families, «there's no retirement fund.»
«It is a new phenomenon,» she said. «They don't have savings to dip into.»
Julie Keene, owner of Flinchbaugh’s Orchard, zeroed in on inflation, and pressed Powell on the uncertain environment businesses have having to navigate.
Inflation «is the biggest word of the whole year,» Keene told him. «Predictability is just gone. It is very hard to operate a business in a world where there is not predictability… We were a little blindsided.»
Powell sought to assure Bracey, Keene and others he met with that central bank officials are acutely aware of the pressures that households are under and are intent on taking the steps they believe are needed to shore up the economy, safeguard the job market and bring inflation to heel.
«We're very focused on restoring price stability,» Powell said, emphasizing — as
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