Understanding why the prices of commodities, like copper, increase or decrease is one of the many pieces of the puzzle that we as policymakers try to fit together to help us figure out how the economy and inflation will perform in the future. Inflation is what the Federal Reserve can control -...

In a speech at Case Western Reserve University, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President and CEO Sandra Pianalto discussed how the recovery is unfolding, focusing on the stubborn nature of high unemployment and her concern about our uncomfortably low rate of inflation. She also explained why...

In a speech to the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth, President Pianalto presented her current outlook for the economic recovery and inflation, and described some risks to that outlook. She also discussed the Federal Reserve's monetary policy and the benefits of an...

In a speech in New York City, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Sandra Pianalto comments on current economic conditions, explains why she thinks the country's economic recovery will be gradual and bumpy, and gives her thoughts on what this gradual path to recovery may mean for inflation...

President Pianalto first explains why maintaining price stability requires keeping inflation expectations low and secure. Second, she describes some inflationary risks that may become significant down the road. Finally, she discusses why, in the face of these risks, central banks' ability to...

In a speech at a Global Interdependence Center conference in Rome, Italy, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Sandra Pianalto discussed her outlook for U.S. economic growth and inflation, and the implications of that outlook for U.S. monetary policy.

This paper addresses the output-price volatility puzzle by studying the interaction of optimal monetary policy and agents' beliefs. We assume that agents choose their information acquisition rate by minimizing a loss function that depends on expected forecast errors and information costs....

The present paper studies optimal monetary policy when the representative agent assumption is abandoned and financial wealth heterogeneity across households is introduced. Incomplete markets make households incapable of perfectly insuring against interest rate and inflation risk, creating a...

A study of the effects of expectations and central bank credibility on the economy's dynamic transition path during a disinflation. Using a version of the Fuhrer-Moore model, it compares simulations under different specifications that vary according to the way expectations are formed and the...

This paper investigates the welfare effects of inflation in economies with search frictions and menu costs. We first analyze an economy where there is no transaction demand for money balances: Money is a mere unit of account. We determine a condition under which price stability is optimal and a...