US Fed's Kashkari: the Fed is watching US-China stand-off closely - Bloomberg

Bloomberg is out with notes on Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari who spoke with Fox News over the weekend regarding the ongoing tariff spat between China and the US.

Key quotes (source: Bloomberg):

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari said he’s “sympathetic” to the need to press China to engage in fair trade, yet emphasized it’s too soon to assess the full impact of the U.S.-China trade spat on the economy.

China has been carrying out a one-sided trade policy for many years, Kashkari said Saturday. “We should all be paying attention” to the tariff threats being exchanged, given the large range of possible outcomes.

“This could be a lot of chest pounding” and not lead to a real impact on the economy, or “it could lead to a trade war,” Kashkari said. The end result may also be something in the middle, where it’s a lot of bluster but it scares businesses and investors, “and they pull back and that could impact the growth of the U.S. economy,” he said.

“We at the Federal Reserve are paying attention, but it’s too soon for any of us to judge,” Kashkari said. “None of us knows how to weigh the probability of these different outcomes.”