Now that the Fed has started to bump up the federal funds rate, the explanation often heard for it is that the Fed is “tightening” monetary policy to keep economic growth in check. But sometimes the Fed needs to move rates just to keep policy from changing.

There has been a remarkable increase in the FOMC’s communication over the last decade. Perhaps the most dramatic change was the inclusion of language indicating the possible direction of future policy. One example is the now famous “considerable-period” language that was inserted in August...

An argument that the Federal Reserve System's current approach to seasonal cycles--pegging the nominal interest rate--could successfully be applied to the business cycle as well.

An argument against using short-term monetary policy to alleviate regional economic shocks and an analysis of how regional economic diversity lends strength to the goal of price stability as the Federal Reserve System's sole monetary policy focus.

A discussion of the February 1989 Humphrey-Hawkins testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan, with suggestions for using the process to better communicate the monetary policy objectives of the Federal Reserve.

This paper estimates the path of inflation persistence in the United States over the last 50 years and draws implications about the evolution of the Federal Reserve's monetary-policy preferences. Standard models of central-bank optimization predict persistent inflation outcomes. Time variation...