It's a rather flexible term that gives them the chance to take many different actions, |
It's certainly unpredictable as to how long this is going to go, and how deep it is going to be and what the impact will be. |
It's more difficult for a governor to have anything resembling a common touch if their personal finances are in a different solar system. |
It's quiet clear in the infamous '92, '93, '94 period, the Fed was pretty darned determined not to open up and certainly not to disclose the fact it had these complete transcripts. |
More than any of his predecessors, he has gone public with every issue under the sun. I'm not sure there's a right answer, but I think it's worth talking about in a public forum what ought to be boundaries of the Fed governors' comments. |
People got thrown for a loop by the stock market crash at beginning of the decade. It doesn't seem impossible that local housing bubbles bursting would have an effect on people's views of savings. Obviously consumption would take a hit if people save at the historic rate. |
The Federal Open Market Committee does not appear from any of its official statements or from the speeches and testimony of its members, to be concerned about excessively strong labor markets or the prospect of wage inflation, |
The White House is vulnerable to the perception that it is prone to picking insiders, cronies and folks with a political ax to grind. |
The yields indicate that markets aren't concerned about inflation or that they're confident that the Fed is on the job and will contain it. But there's some sort of subconscious, collective belief that sustained manageable inflation is too good to be true and eventually the other shoe will drop. |
There will be a perceptible political call by people for a more rule-bound policy after the magician (Greenspan) leaves the stage. |
They are not using that possibility as a justification for their tightening campaign, in contrast to past years when there was a lot of concern about tightening labor market. |
What the long-term effect that has on the Fed as a political institution is one of those things we'll be watching closely. It's hard to tell where it is going to lead. |