Much of this paper was presented at the Cato Institute conference on Monetary Policy in the New Economy, October 19, 2000, Washington, D.C.

Economic growth continues to exceed reasonable estimates of sustainable growth, as last year?s monetary easing is stimulating domestic demand. In 1999, real GDP will grow nearly 4 percent for the fourth consecutive year, despite the negative impact of trade. While the Federal Reserve?s recent...

In its quest to understand and anticipate Federal Reserve behavior, Wall Street economists ad journalists have mined the activity in labor markets to help foretell inflationary price pressures. Earlier during the current expansion, journalists and many academics viewed the low rate of...

In the past 3 1/2 years the U.S. has experienced strong economic growth, low inflation and productivity growth noticeably above the average of the previous two decades. In some corners there is a strong belief that this increase in productivity growth is the beginning of a resurgence in...

The U.S. economy has exhibited remarkable flexibility and resilience to international and financial turmoil. In 1998, amid violent fluctuations in financial markets and foreign exchange, decelerating economic growth in Europe, ongoing recession in Japan and selected Asian nations, and sharp...

In a luncheon speech at the AEA meeting on January 3, 1999, Stanley Fischer argued the case, in a reformed international financial system for ?an agency that will act as lender of last resort for countries facing a crisis.? He asserts that there is a need for such an agency and ?that the IMF is...

International crises and uncertainty abound, yet the U.S. economy remains fundamentally sound after over 7 years of continuous expansion, and is well positioned and sufficiently flexible to absorb the recent external shocks from Asia and the stock market correction. Economic growth is expected...

Last month marked the eleventh year of the Greenspan Fed. During this period, the Fed has achieved low inflation rates not seen since the decade before the Vietnam War. This relatively stable and low inflation environment enabled the economy to expand and unemployment rates to decline, with only...

One of the consequences of slow economic growth in the troubled countries of Asia combined with a relatively robust economy at home is that the U.S. trade deficit has widened significantly. In the second quarter of 1998 the National Income and Product Accounts measure of real net exports was...

Having lost its Bretton Woods role as a regulator of exchange rates and source of short-term balance-of-payments assistance, the IMF has since been an organization in search of a reason for it to exist. Had it been content to serve its members by keeping records of their monetary and economic...