How Monetary Policy Got Behind the Curve--And How to Get Back - Hardcover

by Michael D. Bordo (Editor), John B. Taylor (Editor), John H. Cochrane (Editor)

With the inflation rate in the United States and many other countries on the rise for over a year and nearing double digits, the Hoover Institution hosted its 2022 conference on monetary policy. Policy makers, market participants, and academic researchers gathered to discuss the situation. Many agreed that low interest rates and high money growth were inappropriate given the high inflation rate and evidence that the United States has recovered from the deep recession induced by the pandemic and its policy response in 2020. The thoughtful papers and the thorough discussions in this volume of conference proceedings illustrate the debate about the reasons for this mismatch, as well as how to get back on track. They reflect a range of opinions and perspectives, including examination of the fiscal shock resulting from the COVID pandemic and the related borrowing and spending; emphasis on the value of adherence to rules versus discretion in setting Fed policy; lessons from history in the spikes in federal expenditures during times of war (including the pandemic) and in the timing of the Fed's use of its policy instruments; the role of central banks in the emerging inflation crisis; and strategies toward disinflation.

Author Biography

Michael D. Bordo is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a Board of Governors Professor of Economics and director of the Center for Monetary and Financial History at Rutgers University.

John B. Taylor is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and the Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics and director of the Introductory Economics Center at Stanford University.

John H. Cochrane is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and an adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute.