The distinguished contributors to Populism and the Future of the Fed examine populist demands to expand the Fed’s mandate and the threat to the demarcation between fiscal and monetary policy. All the essays, except those by Charles Plosser and me, stem from Cato’s 39th Annual Monetary Conference,…
In December 1946, Clark Warburton published an article in the Political Science Quarterly titled, “Monetary Control under the Federal Reserve Act,” which was reprinted in chapter 14 of his landmark book, Depression, Inflation, and Monetary Policy (1966). He argues that the Federal Reserve’s failure to prevent the…
The Fed's long-awaited report on central bank digital currencies is finally out. Although the report makes it clear that the Fed has no immediate plans to issue a digital currency, it does point to the approach the Fed would be inclined to take were it to do…
There is increasing pressure on central banks to take climate change into account in formulating monetary policy. The Bank of England and the European Central Bank have already done so, and the Fed may follow suit. Indeed, the Fed’s move into credit allocation and fiscal policy, as…
In view of the Fed's failure to achieve two percent inflation for much of the post-2007 period, the suggestion that it will find it easier to hit a higher target may well strike many as perverse—as if someone suggested that a pole vaulter unable to manage a…