Is Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell a dove or a hawk when it comes to monetary policy? It all depends on the timing. He told us on December 13 that the focus of the Federal Open Market Committee had shifted from how much further to increase interest rates to discussing when, and by how much, to reduce them. That would make him a dove, right? But the message was different at his subsequent post-FOMC press conference on January 31. He switched to stating that the Fed could not be confident by the March meeting that inflation would come down to the targeted 2% rate. The implication was that there would be no ... (full story)