Federal Reserve Board Governor Christopher Waller supports a 75 basis point rate hike at the Fed's July meeting, followed "probably" a 50bp hike in September, he said during a National Association for Business Economists webinar."Then we can debate" on whether to increase rates at smaller increments, he said.Waller has been for months espousing front-loading the central bank's interest rate increases in an effort to bring down inflation."My position is driven mainly by inflation which is just too high and doesn’t seem to be coming down," he said. That means the Fed needs to move to a more restrictive stance.Update at 1:14 PM ET: He thinks that fears of inflation leading to a recession are "overblown." The yield curve inverting by a small amount in the past couple of days "doesn't really mean anything," he added. He sees a good shot at achieving a "soft landing."1:18 PM ET: Looking back on 2021 and the central bank's path to reduce asset purchases, "we just didn't start tapering soon enough," Waller said. The Fed didn't pursue the right risk-management strategy last year, he said. "Risk management would have suggested that we move sooner.He emphasized the policymakers' determination to drive down inflation. "At this point my job is getting inflation down, that's all I'm focusing on right now."1:20 PM ET: Back to recession talk: "It would be tough to say we have a recession at 3.6% unemployment."1:33 PM ET: Waller would have to ...
