Balancing Inflation and Growth Part 8 of 13

Over the same period, the dollar has declined nearly 3 percent against the euro. We know that monetary policy acts with a lag of commodities trading systems, but even with my well-documented pessimism about the efficacy of lowering the fed funds rate to 3 percent, I had privately hoped, against the odds, that we might get a psychological pop out of the yield curve. Instead, we have heard more and more reports of inflationary concerns, and with them increases in longer-term rates and record low exchange rates for the dollar.

Mind you, all these signals could be aberrations-twitches in markets that have occasionally led me to wonder if they were afflicted with the financial equivalent of Tourettes syndrome. But they might also indicate that the markets are unnerved by the idea of further monetary accommodation in a world where commodity prices and commodity day trading inch upward almost on a daily basis and labor costs escalate in Chinese factories, among Indian programmers and all along global supply chains.

I am going to dwell on inflation for a few minutes because I consider it a critical issue. I spoke earlier of Churchills ship of purpose. As my FOMC colleague Governor Rick Mishkin argues so eloquently, it is essential that monetary policy firmly anchor inflation expectations. If the Federal Reserve has an overarching purpose, in my opinion, it is to make sure that anchor stays firmly in place.

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Balancing Inflation and Growth Part 7 of 13

At the same time, I am fully aware that the FOMC must be careful to not undermine that recuperative process. Here, of course, I refer to the potential harm to the consumer and the business and future trading software financial sectors alike by unwittingly allowing the perception to take hold that, as the New York Times editorialized in its lead front page article last Thursday, the Federal Reserve, signaled its readiness to bolster the economy with cheaper money even though inflation is picking up speed.

Talk of cheap money makes my skin crawl. The words imply a debased currency and inflation and the harsh medicine that inevitably must be administered to purge it. So you should not be surprised that I consider the perception that the Fed is pursuing a cheap-money strategy and commodity trading education, should it take root, to be a paramount risk to the long-term welfare of the U.S. economy.

I believe the Times overstates its case. Chairman Bernanke made clear in his congressional testimony last week that we are monitoring inflationary pressures and expectations closely. And yet, I understand the source of the Times sentiment. In a globalized capital market where money is free to move anywhere it pleases, there is scant tolerance for even the slightest whiff of inflation. Since the January FOMC meeting, longer-term rates, including those on fixed mortgages, have risen rather than followed the federal funds rate downward.

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Balancing Inflation and Growth Part 1 of 13

It is an honor to speak here in London to the Society of Business Economists at the suggestion of my much-admired friend, Charlie Bean at the Bank of England. Charlie is on the advisory board of the Dallas Feds Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute, and we are most grateful for his platform trading insight and, not unimportantly, his wit.

I am on my way to a conference in Paris to learn commodity trading, where I have been invited by the Banque de France to comment on a paper by another of our institutes esteemed advisors, Harvard professor Ken Rogoff. I hope my French hosts will forgive me for bringing up my favorite of all of Shakespeares histories this evening, Henry V, as I recall one of the more pleasant moments during my tenure on the Federal Open Market Committee. During our last meeting with Alan Greenspan as chairman, some of us took advantage of the moment to ham it up and work a farewell salute into our otherwise somber interventions. I chose to adapt Henrys speech to the troops at Agincourt. Affecting my best Kenneth Branagh imitation, I mangled the words of the Bard: We few, we happy few, we band of bankers, and so on, concluding with the observation that other economists now abedit was morning when we metshall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their policy prescriptions cheap while any speaks that served in Alan Greenspans days.

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