Trump, Harris inflation arguments are questionable, Chicago Fed president says

• Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee warned against misrepresenting the inflationary impacts of corporate price hikes and tariffs, but steered away from directly speaking on the presidential race.
• Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have both made lowering costs a focal point of their economic policy proposals as voters rank the economy as their top priority in this election.
• The Fed is preparing for its annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, this coming week, where markets will be looking for signals of an interest rate cut.

Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee on Sunday warned against misrepresenting the inflationary impacts of corporate price hikes and tariffs, which have become focal points of the Trump and Harris campaigns' economic platforms.

Goolsbee steered away from directly speaking on the presidential race given the Fed's commitment to remaining independent and politically neutral. But his comments come during an election cycle in which voters have consistently ranked the economy and the high cost of living as their top priorities.

As a result, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have both made lowering costs the driving force of their economic proposals.

Harris has proposed a federal ban on "corporate price-gouging in the food and grocery industries." The Biden administration has repeatedly blamed stubbornly high prices on companies that have kept their prices artificially high even as their production costs come down.

Though Goolsbee would not explicitly comment on the Harris campaign's proposals, he said high prices cannot be solely explained by corporate profit motives.

"The difference between what's happening to prices and what's happening