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Raising rates into a stretched consumer is the Fed's uncomfortable position heading into the fall, and Boston Fed President Susan Collins has now put that tension on the record.
Collins said she would back a September interest rate increase if inflation remains elevated, while separately describing lower-income Americans as struggling to make ends meet.
The case for moving and the reality at the bottom of the income distribution are pulling against each other. The signal Collins sent Collins leads the Boston branch of the Federal Reserve.
Her conditional backing for a September move matters because it clarifies where at least one regional Fed president stands: the meeting is live, and what happens to inflation between now and then will be the deciding factor.
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