Fed’s Miran says he’d adjust inflation view if rents turn higher

Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran said he’d amend his inflation view if housing costs unexpectedly jumped, conceding that his out-of-consensus opinion isn’t necessarily set in stone.

Miran, speaking in an interview Friday on Bloomberg Television, again pointed to factors like stricter immigration policies under President Donald Trump and trends in average rent prices that are likely to bring housing inflation down. 

“If something were to happen that were to tell me that that channel is invalidated, that there’s some shock that’s going to be pushing rents materially higher, the benign inflation forecast that I have would have to be adjusted as a result,” he said. 

Miran dissented against the Fed’s decision last month to cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point, preferring a larger, half-point reduction. He has called for Fed officials to quickly implement a series of outsize cuts to bring their benchmark policy rate to the level he views as neutral, which neither promotes nor restricts economic activity. 

Read more: Fed’s Miran says policy too tight, risking higher unemployment

While policymakers have increasingly acknowledged they may need to continue to lower rates to address signs of weakness in the labor market, several have continued to express caution about further cuts, given lingering uncertainties about Trump’s tariff policies and inflation that is hovering above the Fed’s 2% goal. 

Fed policymakers at their meeting last month penciled in the equivalent of two additional, quarter-point rate cuts for the remainder of 2025, according to their median projection.

Miran said his projections for the Fed’s policy path between now and the end of next year are not that different from those of his colleagues. 

“All that’s different is the fact that I want to get there a little bit faster,” he said. 

Fed independence

Miran, who joined the Fed’s board in September after taking an unpaid leave from his post as a senior White House economic adviser, on Friday continued to downplay the idea that tariffs will boost inflation. His confirmation to the Fed had drawn criticism from Democrats and others who said he should resign from the White House role to preserve the independence of Fed policymaking from political influence. 

Read more: Supreme Court: Fed governor Lisa Cook to remain in office

Miran said he had not talked to Trump since the president called him last month to offer congratulations on his Senate confirmation. He added that Trump has never asked him to take a specific policy action. 

“I do see part of my job as bringing fresh and out-of-consensus ideas to what can be, at times, a settled way of thinking, and that’s what I’m going to continue doing,” he said of his new role at the central bank. 

Asked if he would like to see broader reforms at the Fed, he said such changes “are ultimately an issue for Congress to take up and not one for me to address.”

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