Austan Goolsbee, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and not a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in 2026 — Chicago's rotating seat belongs to Cleveland's Beth Hammack this year — told Fox News Channel's Special Report with Bret Baier on Friday that he supported the Fed's decision to hold rates steady in July and sees a route back to the central bank's 2% inflation target. "If we can get some of this stuff into the rearview mirror, then I think we get back on what I was calling the golden path, which is inflation heading back to 2%," he said, pointing to fading tariff effects and easing oil prices tied to the war in Iran.

Inflation had "stalled out" and moved the wrong way for a stretch, Goolsbee acknowledged, but the past couple of months have brought better readings — PCE inflation cooled to 3.7% in June from a 4.1% peak in May, and mild CPI and PPI reports this week, on top of a soft jobs report last Friday, have largely wiped out trader bets on a September hike.

Turning to growth, Goolsbee called GDP and the labor market basically stable, though productivity worried him more: the last two readings were weak, and he warned that a persistent decline would force a rethink of the AI narrative driving markets. On spending, he waved off one weak month of retail sales as just that, but cautioned that continued weakness would be a real concern.

Monetary Policy

  • I supported the decision to hold rates in July.

Inflation

  • If we can get some of this stuff into the rearview mirror, then I think we get back on what I was calling the golden path, which is inflation heading back to 2%.

  • The overall level being in the 3%, that's too high; that's not great. The good news is the new information that's been coming in has been a little better.

  • Inflation has been too high, and our progress stalled out a little bit and was going the wrong way.

  • But now, for a couple of months, we've been getting a little bit better readings and hopefully that will continue. But we're in that delicate space where the overall economy feels fairly stable, and we're mostly watching the inflation component.

  • Encouraged by CPI reports and needs more data.

Growth & Economy

  • US GDP and labor market are basically stable.

Energy & External Risks

  • Hopeful that fading tariff effects and easing oil prices tied to the Iran war will help inflation continue to improve.

AI & Productivity

  • Persistent drop in productivity would change the AI narrative.

  • Past 2 readings on productivity were very poor.

On the Ground / Real Economy Feedback

  • Continued spending weakness would be worrying.

  • Weak retail sales represent just one month of data.