A Proposal to Clarify the Objectives and Strategy of Monetary Policy

Academic economists have perennially made arguments for the conduct of monetary policy constrained by an explicit rule. These arguments have gone nowhere. This paper advances a proposal to clarify Fed objectives and strategy in order to facilitate discussion leading to consensus over a desirable rule. Economists are likely to have more success in their quest for a rule if they follow the indirect strategy of pushing the Fed for more transparency about the systematic character of policy