Thursday, October 8, 2015

How the Fed Saved the Economy


Federal Reserve Building in Washington DC

Reported by By Ben S. Bernanke, The Wall Street Journal, 10/04/15

Full employment without inflation is in sight. The central bank did its job. What about everyone else?

For the first time in nearly a decade, the Federal Reserve is considering raising its target interest rate, which would end a long period of near-zero rates. Like the cessation of large-scale asset purchases in October 2014, that action will be an important milestone in the unwinding of extraordinary monetary policies, adopted during my tenure as Fed chairman, to help the economy recover from a historic financial crisis. As such, it’s a good time to evaluate the results of those measures, and to consider where policy makers should go from here.

To begin, it’s essential to be clear on what monetary policy can and cannot achieve. Fed critics sometimes argue that you can’t “print your way to prosperity,” and I agree, at least on one level. The Fed has little or no control over long-term economic fundamentals—the skills of the workforce, the energy and vision of entrepreneurs, and the pace at which new technologies are developed and adapted for commercial use.

Click here to see the entire article by Ben Bernanke in The Wall Street Journal

From The Wall Street Journal

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