This article argues that “soft constraints” are a critical and overlooked complement to formal limitations on an agency's independence. Two types of soft constraints that have been influential checks throughout the history of the Federal Reserve illustrate their power. The first, principled...

The Federal Reserve has long used policy frameworks to both explain and inform its policymaking. These policy frameworks typically explain what the Fed is seeking to achieve in a given domain and how it plans to achieve its desired aims. Two prominent examples are the Fed’s use of Bagehot’s...