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Before President Donald Trump rolled out a slew of bigger-than-expected tariffs on April 2, things were looking up, said Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Austan Goolsbee.

The U.S. economy was in a good place, characterized by stable, full employment and inflation nearing the Fed's 2 percent target. The baseline economic conditions would typically warrant lower interest rates than those currently in place.

And while the U.S. economy looks good underneath the surface, uncertainty around the impact of Trump’s tariffs and trade policy has kicked up a “bunch of question marks in the air, you know, dust in the air that makes the visibility low” for the Fed to consider lowering short-term

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