Federal Reserve

Birdwatching at the Federal Reserve

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Read my Oxford University Press blog post on the changing membership of the Federal Reserve’s policy-making body, the Federal Open Market Committee, and the consequences for US interest rates.

Ultra-low interest rates

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Read my latest Oxford University Press blog post on ultra-low rates.  The post is based on a presentation I will make at the SUERF/OeNB/BWG Conference on  “Asset-liability management with ultra-low interest rates,” at the Austrian National Bank in Vienna on March 11, 2015.

Bernanke’s legacy

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Barack Obama recently indicated that he is unlikely to reappoint Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve when his term expires next January. Understandably, the media is focused on who might succeed Bernanke to lead the US central bank. After all, the chairman of the Federal Reserve is often described as the second most … Read more

Will the Brits go negative?

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A little over a year ago, I argued that the Federal Reserve should consider charging banks for the privilege of holding their reserves.  The reasoning for this is straightforward: charging interest on banks (instead of paying interest, as the Fed now does) will encourage banks to come up with more profitable uses for their money, … Read more

Ben Bernanke is a much better economist than John Taylor

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Writing in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal, John Taylor takes the Federal Reserve to task for its “interventionist” behavior. Taylor’s main complaint with the Fed’s conduct of monetary policy is that it is unstable and unpredictable (verging on the whimsical!).  He argues that this stems in part from the Fed’s mandate to pursue low unemployment in … Read more

Time to go negative!

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Since the outbreak of the subprime meltdown, the Federal Reserve has shown itself ready, willing, and able to adopt unconventional monetary policies in order to reverse the downturn ushered in by the financial crisis. Recent Fed innovations have included quantitative easing in order to inject more money into the economy, intervention in the debt market … Read more