Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller, once a dark-horse candidate to replace Jerome Powell as central bank chairman, said in prepared remarks delivered Friday that compounding price shocks from tariffs and the Iran war have created a parallel challenge for policymakers akin to that of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking at an economics event hosted by Auburn University, Waller also warned that optimism from the tenuous Middle East ceasefire may be overriding sound financial judgment in assessing the likelihood of prolonged energy and trade shocks stemming from the conflict.
Waller said oil futures prices and securities markets in general "seem to be undervaluing the risk that the conflict continues, the [Strait of Hormuz] remains closed,...