PRIMER - Today’s Fedspeak includes voters Bowman and Barr

15:00BST/10:00EDT: Fed’s Bowman (voter, dovish) speaks at the Women in Housing and Finance Symposium (no text has been confirmed, though a Q&A is expected). It is unclear if her remarks due today will be on monpol and the economic outlook. Bowman last spoke on policy in March, when she said that she had pencilled in three interest rate cuts in 2026. She said that she was still concerned about the labour market. More recently, the Fed’s Vice Chair for Supervision said regulators must consider how to supervise technologies such as Anthropic PBC’s Mythos; she said such tools can help firms address self-identified vulnerabilities and enhance cybersecurity, but could also be used maliciously to identify and exploit weaknesses.
17:30BST/12:30EDT: Fed’s Barr (voter, neutral) will give remarks on international banking regulation (no text has been confirmed, though a Q&A is expected). It is unclear if his remarks due today will be on monpol and the economic outlook. Barr in late March warned that a prolonged Iran conflict could push longer-term inflation expectations higher, making overall inflation harder to control, and said the Fed should take time to assess conditions before cutting rates further. With inflation around one ppt above target, Barr said the Fed needs to be “especially vigilant.” He also warned that recent regulatory changes had weakened banking system resilience. In mid-April, Barr said AI is likely to add to productivity in the long run and must be used to promote access to credit; he said policymakers must take shocks as given and use available tools, adding that Fed goals are in tension but it will “get the job done”.