BlockBeats News, July 31st, three Federal Reserve policymakers stated that the opposition to a rate hike this week stemmed from persistent inflation pressures, showing that internal action pressure on Fed Chair Powell is mounting. In a statement released Friday morning, Harker and Kashkari stated that they were concerned that although the current round of price increases may stem from short-term factors such as President Trump's tariff policies and the Iran conflict, the inflation situation currently warrants Fed action. Lael Brainard also joined in, expressing that even if inflation has cooled somewhat, without a rate hike, inflation is unlikely to fall back fully to the Fed's 2% target level; unconstrained, inflation could remain above the target level until an unexpected shock occurs.

Kashkari stated that if inflation remains stubborn, he could support a series of rate hikes, not just a one-off increase, to prevent inflation from further solidifying. He said: "Taking a series of small policy adjustments may be preferable to waiting for the situation to evolve and ultimately having to take more aggressive action." Harker said that if the Fed does not tighten policy, the pace of price increases could continue to accelerate. She stated: "Inflation has been persistently stubbornly above 2% for over five years, and I am not confident it will fall back to our target level on its own." (FXStreet)