Curveball Question Thrown At Fed Chair Yellen During Philadelphia Q&A
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's speech in Philadelphia this past week included guarded remarks about tinkering with interest rates. But in a followup Q&A with the audience, she may have been caught off guard.
Janet Yellen expects interest rates to "gradually increase," but she did not specify a timetable.
Then, during a question and answer session, some World Affairs Council members tried different methods to elicit a response on whether the Fed would provide guidance on future rate hikes.
She politely demurred, and definitely did so to the last question from the audience: "What if" the presumptive Republican nominee "Donald Trump was elected president, could there be an economic crash because of the world view of Mr. Trump?"
'I'm sorry. I've got nothing for you on that. You know, we're very focused on doing our jobs. We'll see what happens," she responded.
Donald Trump has previously said he would be inclined to replace Yellen as the Fed chair.