Evans: Fed should keep rates low until unemployment hits 6.5 percent

For the past year, Charles Evans, president of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, has called for low interest rates until the unemployment rate falls below 7 percent as long as inflation does not breach 3 percent. He now feels that number is too conservative and is pushing for 6.5 percent for the unemployment rate and 2.5 percent for the inflation threshold. “We’re much more likely to reach the 6.5 percent unemployment threshold before inflation begins to approach even a modest number like 2.5 percent,” Evans said.