The Fed ' s Chicago Shindig

Earlier this month I was lucky enough to attend the Federal Reserve ’s much-anticipated conference on “Monetary Policy Strategy, Tools, and Communication Practices. ” This was the “research” component of a series ofFed Listens events kicked off this February and wrapped-up last week. The aim of the series was to allow Fed officials “to hear perspectives from representatives of business and industry, labor leaders, community and economic development officials, academics, nonprofit organization executives, and others” concerning how the Fed might more perfectly fulfill its mandate.To call both the Chicago conference and theFed Listens series unusual would be an understatement: traditionally, the Board of Governors tends to be a somewhat insular institution,if not one plagued by groupthink. So far as I ’m aware it has never put so much effort into hearing what Fed outsiders — and particularly non-academic outsiders — have to say about how it should do its job. Even if it makes for little if any discernible change, this display of increased Fed openness to outsider opinions is at least a step in a good direction.Insiders and OutsidersAs befit its purpose,the Chicago program consisted mainly of technical research presentations and commentaries by academics, with Fed officials presiding.* The audience of just over 160 persons was, in contrast, divided roughly equally between current and former Fed staff and officials and others — including at least a dozen jou...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs