Fed's Paulson (2026 voter) says current period is a complicated time for monetary policy, via CNBC Interview

• Inflation is too high and she wants to reduce it.
• It is right to look through supply shocks.
• Need to keep an eye on second round effects.

• Need mildly restrictive monetary policy and Fed likely has that now.
• Policy feels mildly restrictive, has an open mind where rate policy is going.
• Was not a close call to keep rates steady at FOMC.
• If we dont see progress to 2% inflation, need to be open to calibrating policy, could be higher rates, could be same rates for longer. Need an open mind on what is appropriate.

• Cannot provide forward guidance as she is weighing evidence with everyone else. Uncertainty of current environment makes it hard to give guidance.
• Forward guidance more appropriate when rates are near zero.
• It is great to take a fresh look at how the Fed does its work.
• Is open minded about fed reviews (task forces).
• Sometimes dots are helpful, sometimes they are not.

Remarks of this kind from a sitting voter are typically parsed less for the headline inflation language than for what they reveal about the reaction function, and the signal here is of the standard hold-and-wait variety: policy mildly restrictive, no urgency on the last decision, and rate direction contingent on progress toward target. Officials who frame the choice set as 'higher or the same for longer' rather than 'lower' are describing a committee with no near-term easing bias, a posture that in past episodes of this kind has tended to anchor the front end and leave the repricing work to incoming prints rather than to rhetoric. The comments on guidance, that it belongs near the zero bound and that dots are sometimes unhelpful, fit a recurring pattern in which uncertain regimes see officials withdraw conditional commitments; that has historically raised the volatility weight carried by each inflation release relative to scheduled speeches. The notable channel is therefore sensitivity, not level: an open-minded reaction function transmits through data surprises rather than through the speaker's own words. Worth noting is whether colleagues adopt the same 'no close call' framing of the hold, since convergence of tone across the committee has mattered more for the curve than any individual interview. The framework-review openness is a longer-dated governance story rather than a policy signal.