james bullard doesn’t think the federal reserve is attacking high inflation with enough urgency the president of the st louis federal reserve was the lone “no” vote when the central bank raised a key us interest rate on wednesday for the first time in four years his gripe the fed should have gone even further the bank lifted its benchmark shortterm rate by a quarter point from near zero to a range of 025 to 05 bullard wanted double the increase “the fed will have to move quickly to address this situation or risk losing credibility on its inflation target” bullard said in a statement on friday morning bullard has warned for months that inflation was rising dangerously fast and that the fed had to take action “we’re at more risk now than we’ve been in a generation that this could get out of control” he said last month even implying there was too much groupthink at the fed the fed in some ways signaled a more aggressive posture this week the bank forecast a rapid series of hikes over the next two years and interest rates ending higher at 28 than wall street had expected these increases are expected to dampen consumer spending and business investment and slow a rapidly growing economy it still wasn’t enough for bullard he said the fed should have raised rates by half a point on wednesday and he wants the bank to push the rate above 3 by year end instead of 19 as signaled by the fed the “unexpectedly high inflation means that the committee’s policy rate is currently far too low to prudently manage the us macroeconomic situation” bullard warned he said he worries the fed might not be able to reduce inflation to prepandemic levels of 2 or less without speedier action not only does he want a quicker increase in interest rates he also favored an immediate reduction in the fed’s 9 trillion balance sheet the fed on wednesday said it would lay out details for selling off assets “at a coming meeting” the fed bought trillions in treasury bonds and securities composed of home mortgages during the crisis to bring longterm rates down to historic lows