Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin says, “I see inflation being stubborn.”  More than half of the respondents at his chamber of commerce small business meeting say they will be raising prices to higher than pre-Covid levels. 

Mr. Barkin, “doesn’t think this is a big time for forward guidance on rates,” seemingly implying that rate cut projections are misguided.  He thinks rates will run higher for longer and says there is a lot of wage pressure in the skilled trade professions.  On the general economy, he is not seeing frothiness (such as in Q3) but rather normalizing growth numbers year-over-year.