Economix Blog: Parsing a Fed Official's Speech

The hottest idea in monetary policy circles over the last couple of years has been the notion that the Fed could induce a better recovery by stating a target for Nominal GDP.

MY VIEW of Ben Bernanke's Jackson Hole speech is similar to my colleague's. I appreciate that he lectured the government on its heedless fiscal policymaking, but I found the tone on monetary policy to be confusing and timid—though not surprisingly so. As I was catching up on my reading after returning to Washington, however, I was struck by the continued divide in interpretation of the Fed's policy moves.

MY VIEW of Ben Bernanke's Jackson Hole speech is similar to my colleague's. I appreciate that he lectured the government on its heedless fiscal policymaking, but I found the tone on monetary policy to be confusing and timid—though not surprisingly so. As I was catching up on my reading after returning to Washington, however, I was struck by the continued divide in interpretation of the Fed's policy moves.

BOSTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's second-highest official on Wednes

Since the onset of the financial crisis, the Fed has famously engaged in "unconventional" measures to ease monetary policy. Unconventionality has been required, since short term interest rates have dropped to ~0%, and the Fed can't lower rates below that. So it has to try new tools.

OTTAWA — Mark Carney hasn’t even taken up his new post at the Bank of England, but already there is growing speculation about where his policies will take the country. The U.K. central bank wraps up its monthly monetary policy meeting Thursday with new signs the economy is barely afloat and few options left to reverse that trend. Mr. Carney, who is jumping from the Bank of Canada to lead the BoE through an uncertain few years, is expected to pull out all the stops to keep the U.K. from sinking into yet another recession.