Fed Minutes Show Officials Saw Two-Sided Risks From Iran War | Bloomberg Businessweek
April 9, 2026
663
4
0.60%
Search the Record
IndexedEvery word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
Bloomberg Podcasts Episodes Around April 9, 2026
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
45:25Now PlayingFed Minutes Show Officials Saw Two-Sided Risks From Iran War | Bloomberg Businessweek
YouTube Description
as posted by the channelThe people, companies and trends shaping the global economy.
Watch Carol and Tim LIVE every day on YouTube().
A growing number of Federal Reserve officials worried the Iran war could further stoke inflation and wanted to make clear following their March meeting that the central bank may have to consider raising interest rates.
Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s March 17-18 meeting, released Wednesday in Washington, showed policymakers wrestled with starkly differing scenarios for the US economy following the outbreak of the Iran war, and the policy reactions that might follow.
Most officials worried a protracted war could hurt the labor market and warrant lower interest rates. At the same time, many policymakers highlighted the risk to inflation that might ultimately warrant rate increases.
Officials in the latter camp appeared to become more strident, urging their colleagues to consider adding language to their post-meeting statement that raised the scenario of hiking rates under certain conditions.
“Some participants judged that there was a strong case for a two-sided description of the committee’s future interest-rate decisions in the post-meeting statement, reflecting the possibility that upward adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate could be appropriate if inflation were to remain at above-target levels,” the minutes said.
Echoing those concerns, the minutes noted the “vast majority” of officials thought it may take longer to return inflation to the Fed’s 2% goal.
At the meeting, officials held the Fed’s benchmark policy rate in a range of 3.5% to 3.75% at that gathering.
Today's show features:
Michael McKee, Bloomberg International Economics and Policy Correspondent, breaks Fed Minutes
Matthew Luzzetti, Deutsche Bank Chief US Economist and Head of US Economic Research
Dr. Ed Husain, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
Michelle Gass, Levi's President & CEO on Levi Boosts Outlook as Direct-to-Consumer Strategy Pays Off
See omnystudio.com/listener () for privacy information.
Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec bring together the latest news from the world of business and finance and the interesting stories of global technology, politics, economics and more by harnessing the power of Bloomberg Businessweek reporters and editors.
Subscribe to Bloomberg Podcasts
Listen to more of Bloomberg Businessweek
#Bloomberg #Podcast #News #Businessweek
Follow Bloomberg Podcasts on Twitter
Visit our other YouTube channels:
Bloomberg Television
Bloomberg Originals
For coverage on news, markets and more
Guests & Subjects Covered
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.