Understanding Fedspeak
Past Event
Paper
Central bank communications have evolved substantially since Sir Montagu Norman, the governor of the Bank of England from 1921-1944, reportedly took as his personal motto, “Never explain, never excuse.” More recently, in the U.S., the Federal Reserve has expanded its communications to include a statement after every meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), quarterly press conferences by the chair, and quarterly projections of the economy and the path of interest rates by each member of the FOMC.
Other central banks have done much the same, believing that monetary policy is more effective when the public and financial markets understand the central bank’s thinking and that openness is essential to preserving central bank independence in democratic societies. Yet the Fed is often criticized for being unclear and opaque, and there is no doubt that the Fed’s audiences are often confused.
On November 30, the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy and the Center for Financial Economics at Johns Hopkins examined the purpose and quality of Fed communications from the perspectives of academics, former Fed officials, Wall Street Fed watchers, and those in the press who cover the Fed. What is and what should be the goal of Fed communications? What does it do well? Not so well?
Read Governor Powell’s prepared remarks on the Federal Reserve’s website.
Agenda
Paper
Jon Faust
Director, Center for Financial Economics and Louis J. Maccini Professor of Economics - Johns Hopkins University
Alan Blinder
Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics - Princeton University
Former Brookings Expert
Listening to the Fed
Louise Sheiner
The Robert S. Kerr Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Policy Director - The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy
Ben S. Bernanke
Distinguished Senior Fellow - Economic Studies - The Brookings Institution
Ylan Q. Mui
Reporter - CNBC
What does Wall Street want?
David Wessel
Director - The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy
Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Julia Coronado
President & Founder - MacroPolicy Perspectives
Clinical Associate Professor of Finance - University of Texas at Austin
Roberto Perli
Partner - Cornerstone Macro
Vincent Reinhart
Chief Economist - Standish Mellon Asset Management
Peter Hooper
Managing Director, Chief Economist - Deutsche Bank Securities
The View from the Fed
Donald Kohn
Robert V. Roosa Chair in International Economics
Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Jerome H. Powell
Chair - The Federal Reserve
Session Materials
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