Jerome Powell: “I want to congratulate and thank, by the way, Mr. Chairman, the 250,000-plus Americans who signed up to participate in…”

The public would lose faith that the central bank will make decisions based only on what’s best for all Americans.

The Fed’s credibility would be lost.

The outlook for employment and inflation does not appear to have changed much since our September meeting

Stopping sooner could have made some difference, but not likely enough to fundamentally alter the trajectory of the economy