⁍ In a series of starkly contrasting public statements, policymakers offered differing views on how long it will take the U.S. economy to recover from the crisis brought on by the pandemic.

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⁍ Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren and Chicago Fed President Charles Evans offered gloomy views on the economic outlook.

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⁍ St. Louis Fed President James Bullard offered a bullish view on the economic recovery.

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– Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will wrap up two days of testimony to Congress on Friday, and he’s expected to reiterate the Fed’s plan to keep interest rates low as long as it takes for the US economy to fully recover from the Great Recession, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Fed expects the unemployment rate to fall to 3.6% by the end of 2019 and 3.6% by the end of 2020, and it has projected two more rate increases this year. That’s down from its previous projection of three, but it’s still above the 2% target that the Fed wants to reach by the end of 2023. In his testimony, Powell said the US economy is still dealing with the effects of the financial crisis and recession, and he warned that the end of stimulus checks and unemployment benefits could cause some Americans to lose their homes, Reuters reports. “The US economy is not yet out of the woods,” he said. “There are downside risks to the economic outlook and the labor market, as well as upside risks to the inflation outlook.” He also said the Fed’s current approach of keeping rates low for a long time will allow for more time for inflation to build up, though St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told Yahoo Finance this week that he sees inflation reaching 2% by the end of 2023.