A summation of the forecasts of 27 economists made at the January 26, 1990 meeting of the Fourth District Economists' Roundtable, with major emphasis on the inflation outlook, GNP growth, and capital spending.

Careful readers of FOMC communications will note that in addition to talking about actual inflation, the committee often talks about inflation expectations. Sandra Pianalto, the president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, explains the important role that...

The world has seen a dramatic decline in inflation rates in recent decades, but concerns about inflation may still be warranted, especially in some countries. Evidence is mounting that inflation is harmful to economic activity even at fairly modest rates of inflation because of the way it...

Low inflation over long periods is the sign of an effective central bank. The authors suggest that a large fraction of the worldwide decline in inflation since the early 1980s results from an international movement toward more independent central banks.

An analysis of the sources and costs of unpredictable inflation, finding that the uncertainty stems from a lack of appropriate constraints on the monetary policy process, and that the costs could be sharply reduced by adopting a policy that targets a long-run path for the price level.

An argument that a monetary policy aimed at eliminating long-run inflation would benefit society by removing price distortion, increasing economic growth, adding liquidity to the economy, and reducing uncertainty associated with price-level drift.