There was a time when the Federal Reserve believed that honest money—i.e., a stable price level— was essential for achieving full employment. Today, retired Fed officials are recommending that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) target 3-percent inflation. They argue that a 3 percent...

This paper uses the transcripts from the FOMC meetings to characterize the interactions between policymakers and macro models in the formulation of U.S. monetary policy. We develop a taxonomy of these interactions and present two case studies. The first case focuses on the debate on the choice...

This paper looks at the monetary policy decisions of the U.S. Federal Reserve and asks whether those decisions have been influenced solely by national concerns, or whether regional factors have played a role. All of the Federal Reserve's policymakers have some regional identity, i.e., either...

a speech at the Redefining Investment Strategy Education Symposium, Dayton, Ohio, March 30, 2005