02/05/2016

Statement & Booking Opportunity: Ady Barkan, Director of the Fed Up campaign, released the following statement in response to today’s Jobs Report:

“While January’s job data shows a moderately good start to the new year, fears that global turmoil will roil the U.S. economy are giving Fed officials pause about raising interest rates. Earlier this week, San Francisco Fed President John Williams and Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan both suggested that recent foreign stock market instability is influencing the trajectory of projected interest rate increases by the Fed this year. Kaplan explained that stock market turmoil coupled with low commodity prices gives the Fed good reasons to be patient and take more time to assess the impact on the U.S. economy. The Federal Reserve intentionally slowed down the economy in December, ignoring the voices of working people around the country. In January, we learned that the economy barely grew at all in late 2015. And as international markets tumbled, the Fed began to walk back its excessive optimism. It’s good that Fed officials are now taking a cautious approach to rate hikes. They need to keep their eyes on the fundamentals, and prioritize higher labor force participation, higher wages, and lower racial disparities in the labor market.”

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www.whatrecovery.com

Fed Up is a coalition of community organizations and labor unions across the country, campaigning for the Federal Reserve to adopt pro-worker policies for the rest of us. The Fed can keep interest rates low, give the economy a fair chance to recover, and prioritize full employment and rising wages.

Media Contact: Anita Jain, ajain@populardemocracy.org, 347-636-9761  

Sofie Tholl, stholl@populardemocracy.org, 646-509-5558