Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago since 2023, is warning about the risks of political interference in the Fed’s monetary policy. He draws on Paul Volcker’s example, who succeeded in taming 1980s inflation by raising rates despite high economic and social costs, but only thanks to the central bank’s independence. Goolsbee also describes tariffs imposed under the Trump administration as a « stagflationary shock, » a nightmare for central bankers as monetary policy tools cannot solve a supply-side problem. In January 2026, he warned that political pressure could cause inflation to come « roaring back, » fearing that inflation expectations could become self-fulfilling.
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