The primary objective of most of the world's central banks these days is to keep inflation low, and the range of inflation rates banks find acceptable appears to be around 2.5 to 3.5 percent. While banks may have hit on this range through trial and error, economic theory and empirical...

An overview of monetary policy developments in 1993, discussed in the context of the longer-term objective of price stability.

An examination of monetary policy actions before and after 1982, illustrating that prompt federal funds rate increases aimed at maintaining a low inflation environment are associated with subsequent robust economic growth, not with weak growth, as is commonly thought.

An examination of how to assess the inflationary effects of current monetary policy, reviewing the behavior of a selected measure of core inflation over the past decade and contrasting this pattern with the inflation expectations of both households and professional forecasters, concluding that...

An explanation of P-Star, evaluating its usefulness both as an indicator of potential inflation and as a method of assessing the Federal Reserve's long-term goal of price stability.