Fed's Powell gets an earful about inflation and interest rates from small businesses

abcnews.go.com:

Federal Reserve officials typically gather many of their insights and observations about the economy from some of the top Ph.D. economists in Washington

YORK, Pa. — Federal Reserve officials typically gather many of their insights and observations about the economy from some of the top Ph.D. economists in Washington.

On a visit Monday to York, Pennsylvania, Chair Jerome Powell got an earful from a group with a decidedly different perspective: Small-business people who are grappling personally with inflation, high interest rates, labor shortages and other challenges of the post-pandemic economy.

Powell, along with Patrick Harker, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, traveled to York to learn about the efforts of the long-time manufacturing hub, where York Peppermint Patties were once made, to diversify its economy.

The businesspeople they spoke with were generally optimistic but expressed a range of concerns: They are still having trouble finding all the workers they need. Higher interest rates have discouraged some of them from expanding. And higher costs and a chronic difficulty in acquiring enough supplies have persisted.

“We were a little blind-sided by inflation,” said Julie Flinchbaugh Keene, co-owner of Flinchbaugh's Orchard & Farm Market. Since the pandemic struck more than three years ago, she said, “predictability is just gone. It's very hard to operate a business without predictability.”

Keene noted that her parents had experienced high inflation when they ran the business back in the 1980s. But the company was much smaller then and had no employees. As a result, her father said, “I don't have any wisdom to give you.”

“We'll get inflation down," Powell said after listening to her concerns.

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