Fed's Goolsbee: need more comfort on inflation, every meeting live

By Ann Saphir

Aug 13 (Reuters) - Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Austan Goolsbee on Wednesday said he is uneasy assuming that tariffs won't push inflation upward and is not convinced that the U.S. labor market is deteriorating - two reasons cited by a few of his colleagues who support interest-rate cuts.

At the same time he is leaving the door wide open to join them by the Fed's September 16-17 policy-setting meeting, saying if the labor market clearly deteriorates a rate cut would be the natural outcome, and that it would be entirely possible to cut but then to pause or reverse course if new information arose.

"All of the meetings this fall, they are going to be live meetings," Goolsbee told reporters after a speech, saying he wanted to see multiple months of good inflation readings to feel comfortable that inflation is on path to 2% and the Fed can cut.

He said that so far he had seen a couple months of mild readings and just one, the most recent consumer price index reading, with a concerning rise in service inflation.