Hammack says low-income workers are now juggling which bills to pay
Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack says the tone from low-income households has shifted from trading down to deciding which bills get paid.
Published
Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said comments from low-income workers have changed in recent weeks. Where households once talked about trading down to cheaper goods, she said, they are now describing which bills they can afford to pay.
Hammack made the remark alongside a broader case for tighter policy. She has said the central bank's question is no longer whether to make policy more restrictive but how quickly to do it, and she has repeated her call for higher interest rates, backing smaller, more frequent moves rather than a single large one.
The low-income comment sits apart from the rest of her message. Hammack has also described business conditions as strong to booming, a framing that does not easily square with households at the lower end cutting back to the point of choosing between bills. The remark does not change her policy stance, which still points toward further tightening, but it puts a sign of consumer strain on the table that the case for more restriction has not yet had to address.