Inflation Is Still Too High
Bill Dudley, US inflation and financial conditions US inflation remains elevated, with a broad range of underlying measures ranging from 2.4% to 3.3%. Inflation has exceeded the central bank’s 2% objective for more than five years. When this is the case, monetary policy should be restrictive. There is little evidence that US monetary policy is currently restrictive. The federal funds rate has been at the current level or higher for almost four years and the unemployment rate has been quite stable, at a level consistent with full employment for the past 2 years. If policy had been restrictive then we should have expected to see the unemployment rate rising and inflation falling. The notion that monetary policy is not restrictive is supported by the buoyancy of financial market conditions: high stock prices, tight credit spreads and moderate bond yields. For example, the Fed’s financial conditions index estimated that the stance of financial conditions last m...