Fed’s Barkin: Two Full Months of Data per Policy Meeting Would Be an Advantage

Barkin's preference for a fuller data window between meetings points to a structural timing problem in how the Fed reads the economy, not just a scheduling quirk. His read that policy may be at or slightly below neutral, alongside a 'healthy' jobs report set against low hiring and firing, suggests the debate is shifting from how restrictive rates are to how little signal the labor market is giving. The open question is whether other officials echo this data-cadence concern, which would matter for how markets price meeting-to-meeting volatility.