Category Archives: Monetary Policy
A Reawakening of International Monetary Policy Research
International Monetary Stability: Past Present and Future was the topic of this year’s monetary policy conference held last week at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. With highly volatile exchange rates, the spread of unusual monetary policies, and disappointing growth and stability, it … Continue reading
New Book on Fed Oversight Reform
Recent legislation to rein in Fed power, including the Fed Oversight Reform and Modernization (FORM) Act, has generated a load of opinion pieces and acrimonious debate, but so far little in the way of in-depth policy research. The purpose of the … Continue reading
Posted in Monetary Policy, Regulatory Policy
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A Firm Conclusion About the Role of Fed Leading Up to the Crisis
Matthew Klein recently wrote a nice piece for the Financial Times on the role of the Fed in the asset price bubble in 2003-2005 and thereby in the subsequent bust leading to the financial crisis. He begins by reviewing a fascinating … Continue reading
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Economists State Why Policy Rules Legislation Is Needed
Recent policy rules legislation introduced in the House and Senate has attracted much attention—including in op-eds, blog posts, tweets, editorials, speeches, research papers, conferences and Congressional testimony over the past few years. A particular version of this legislation passed the … Continue reading
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Listen to the Economic Experts
Each year I look forward to reading the Annual Report of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers which endeavors to explain the economy and policy from the perspective of the current Administration; my interest may have been piqued from working … Continue reading
Posted in Monetary Policy
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False Claims about Monetary Reforms
In a recent blog post Adam Posen complains about “new legislative efforts” which he claims are “trying to force the Fed to follow strictly a narrow policy rule when setting monetary policy even in normal times—and report to Congress in … Continue reading
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Staggering Neo-Fisherian Ideas and Staggered Contracts
In a recent paper Do Higher Interest Rates Raise or Lower Inflation? and a follow-up post, John Cochrane delves into the “neo-Fisherian” idea that “maybe raising interest rates raises inflation” and lowering interest rates lowers inflation. He starts with a two-equation … Continue reading
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The Fed’s Letter to Congress and the FORM Debate
In advance of a House vote on the Fed Oversight Reform and Modernization (FORM) Act, Fed Chair Janet Yellen sent an open letter to Speaker Paul Ryan and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi objecting to the legislation and generating a lot of media … Continue reading
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It’s Still Not About Monetary Conspiracy Theories
I see that Paul Krugman is complaining again about an op-ed that Paul Ryan and I wrote in Decmber 2010. I responded to Krugman back in February of this year when his complaints first appeared on his blog and in his … Continue reading
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Colliding with Bill Dudley at a Crossroads
New York Fed President Bill Dudley and I debated The Fed at a crossroads: Where to go next? at Brookings yesterday, moderated by David Wessel. Bill argued against a more rules-based road ahead for the Fed. I disagreed, but this kind … Continue reading
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Economics One 