Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee joins WSJ’s Take On the Week to discuss the economy, inflation, tariffs and AI. Goolsbee shares the Federal Reserve's approach to monetary policy and a "golden path" where stable full employment and decreasing inflation would allow for interest rate cuts.

Rising prices across an array of goods from coffee to audio equipment to home furnishings pulled inflation higher.

What is clear is that the current 4.33% median Fed funds target rate remains well above the inflation trend. Even after the acceleration in consumer prices in June, the policy rate is roughly 1.4 percentage points above headline CPI’s one-year change – close to the biggest gap post-pandemic.

Federal Reserve governor Adriana Kugler said the Fed should hold interest rates steady for a while to come, because new trade barriers are likely to spark more inflation in the months ahead. Speaking at a housing conference in Washington,

With June's inflation reading coming in hotter than the month prior, the Fed is under renewed pressure to maintain its current target range for the federal funds rate. Analysts now see little chance of a rate cut in the near term. That means HELOC borrowers are unlikely to see significant rate drops anytime soon.

The report on wholesale inflation came a day after the Labor Department reported that consumer prices last month rose 2.7% from June 2024, the biggest year-over-year gain since February, as Trump’s sweeping tariffs pushed up the cost of everything from groceries to appliances.

The producer price index for total final demand was unchanged in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

If you're thinking about tapping your home's equity, make sure you understand what could happen with rates soon.