The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has maintained an accommodative monetary policy ever since the 2007 recession, and some financial market participants are concerned that long-term interest rates may increase more than should be expected when the Committee starts to tighten. But a look at...

Drawing from his long experience participating in the policymaking process at the Federal Reserve, chief policy officer Mark Sniderman shares his views on how the Federal Reserve’s framework for conducting monetary policy has evolved over the past decade. He explains how changes in economic...

The intended effects of a government policy can be distorted by the public’s expectations about how strictly it will be enforced. If households and businesses cannot be certain that a policy will remain unchanged over its scheduled tenure, they will adjust their response to it to reflect this...

This Commentary describes how some of the Cleveland Fed’s macroeconomic forecasting models have been modified to use a Taylor rule for monetary policy. After briefly describing the Taylor rule implementation, the article shows that the Taylor rule included in one of our models successfully...

This Economic Commentary explains the concerns that are associated with the combination of deflation, low economic activity, and zero nominal interest rates and describes how monetary policy might be conducted in such a situation. We argue that avoiding expectations of deflation is key and that...

Banks have long been required to hold reserves equal to a percentage of their net transactions accounts (checkable deposits, for example), but until recently, they earned no interest on those reserves. The Fed now pays interest on required and excess reserve balances, having been granted the...

A review of Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker's testimony before Congress about the System's monetary targets for 1985, with an analysis of some current monetary policy issues.

Economic forecasts are essential tools for monetary policymakers. But behind the numbers of any given forecast, demand- or supply-side factors could be at play, each requiring very different policy responses. For this reason, explains Sandra Pianalto, the president and chief executive officer of...

A review of monetary targeting in recent years and a discussion of issues raised by Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker's February 1984 report to Congress on the System's objectives for the year.

A presentation by the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank president of his views on the essential principles underlying monetary policy and on the proper focus of a central bank.