Presented by Charles I. Plosser, President and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. 20th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference, April 14, 2011, New York, New York.

National surveys follow consumers’ expectations of future inflation, because they may directly affect the economic choices they make, indirectly affect macroeconomic outcomes, and be considered in monetary policy. Yet relatively little is known about how individuals form the inflation...

The University of Michigan survey of consumers shows that expected inflation has moved up noticeably over the past few months, raising concerns that we may be in for a period of rising inflation. However, the increase in expected inflation likely reflects the excess sensitivity of consumers to...

Inflation has risen of late, reflecting higher prices for many commodities. The inflation rate is likely to peak around the middle of 2011 and then return to an annual level of about 1¼ to 1½%. A sustained period of high inflation is very unlikely and the Fed will act quickly and decisively to...

Presentation to Town Hall Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, May 4, 2011

We investigate the importance of trend inflation and the real-activity gap for explaining observed inflation variation in G7 countries since 1960. Our results are based on a bivariate unobserved-components model of inflation and unemployment in which inflation is decomposed into a stochastic...

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Sandra Pianalto explains why price stability is essential for maximum employment and how the adoption of a numerical target for inflation may improve the central bank’s ability to achieve both objectives. Find the essay, along with Frequently Asked...

Over the long term, steady job growth requires low and stable inflation. In this special issue of Forefront, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Sandra Pianalto explains why price stability is essential for maximum employment and how the adoption of a numerical target for inflation may...

It has often been reported that different demographic groups show persistent differences in their inflation expectations. Some reasonable explanations have been suggested, but most have failed to fully explain these apparent differences. We argue that the demographic differences have been...

Do the rising commodity prices we have seen in recent years reflect basic supply-and-demand developments in various commodity markets, or are they the fi rst signs of inflation? In practice, it’s not always easy to tell the difference - for the public or policymakers - but fundamentally...