Thursday, October 23, 2014

NYT: No Big Deal If Price Inflation Climbs Above 2%

An NYT editorial calls for the Fed to print and print to keep interest rates low and says higher price inflation is no big deal. Note also that this is the first time I have see it claimed that the Fed's mandate  is to keep "inflation stable," rather than price stability :
[I]t is not the Fed’s job to protect investors’ bond portfolios. Its job is to foster both stable inflation and full employment... there is no inflationary pressure and no reason to raise rates in the near term.
In fact, inflation has been so low for so long that the economy would not be in danger of overheating even if there were a period of inflation above the 2 percent target. That target is an average that the Fed would like to maintain over time, not a level that necessarily signals the need for a rate increase.
This is likely thinking very close to that of the Fed itself. The Fed is going to be very slow to react to climbing price inflation.

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