(Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve is “puzzled” by U.S. inflation and wants to avoid ending up like Japan, according to Randall Kroszner, professor of economics at Chicago Booth School of Business and a former Fed governor.
Policy makers are “very concerned about inflation not moving up” and want to “buy some insurance” about the potential for downside economic and price growth risk, he said in an interview on Bloomberg Television with Francine Lacqua and Tom Keene.
Many central bankers across the globe -- including the U.S. -- are signaling a shift toward ending monetary tightening due to concerns about a slowdown and trade tensions, Kroszner said.
“I don’t think that they’re sitting in a room and saying we’re all going to cut at the same time,” he said. “They’re seeing similar things globally.”