Start with the fact that the monetary policy gurus at the Federal Reserve Board have made it no secret that they would very much like to dismount the tiger that is QE3 -- asset purchases and money printing -- without turning slow growth into no growth or a recession. The only question is when -- sooner if some monetary policy committee members have their way, later if incoming chairman Janet Yellen prevails. Add a second fact: the belief by a majority of Fed policy makers that monetary policy works: (1) printing money keeps interest rates at or near zero, (2) zero interest rates in turn force investors to hunt for yield, which in turn (3) drives up asset prices (houses and shares), (4) creating a “wealth effect” that encourages spending by those fortunate enough to own homes and shares, (5) thereby promoting economic growth or at minimum preventing a recession.Not everyone agrees that this five-step recovery program will produce sustainable, sober growth. After all, despite the fact that the Fed has been buying up assets and printing money at the impressive pace of $85 billion per month, the annual growth rate remains below 2 percent, and job creation, which averaged around 200,000 per month before the Fed began its asset-purchase program, is now averaging closer to 140,000. And if printing money could produce wealth, citizens from Argentina to Zimbabwe would be as rich as Croesus, rather than watching the value of their cash evaporate before they can get to the stores to spend it. Which is one reason that Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and due to become Yellen’s thorn-in-chief when he joins the monetary policy committee (technically, the Open Market Committee) in 2014, says there is a point at which printing money becomes an “agent of financial recklessness” … and worries because “none of us really knows where that tipping point is.” That admirable confession of uncertainty marks Fisher as a man to be listened to. When the monetary policy committee meets in a few weeks’ time it will face this set of facts:· The economy is growing steadily but slowly, with such growth as there is fuelled by housing and auto sales, two sectors especially sensitive to increases in interest rates, which means that higher rates might have a significant impact on overall growth.· The unemployment rate has been falling, but in good measure only because so many workers have become too discouraged to continue looking for work. And many of the jobs being created are part-time only. · Inflation, which many Fed critics feared would heat up as the printing presses rolled, remains below the 2 percent rate the Fed considers desirable, and there is more talk of possible deflation and a Japan-style lost decade than of an inflationary spurt. · Policies that stifle growth seem to be preferred by our politicians. Fiscal policy is tightening as Republicans turn back President Obama’s demand for another round of stimulus spending on infrastructure, premiums paid by businesses and individuals for health insurance are rocketing skyward to discourage hiring as the provisions of Obamacare come into effect, and congress is preparing to allow benefits to the long-term unemployed expire.From which one can conclude either that the Fed should run the presses even faster, or that the asset-buying, money-printing program known as QE3 should be wound down. Which brings us back to Yellen, and to the social values that always underlie economic policy-making. The incoming chairman would rather risk inflation and the distortions produced by zero interest rates than continued high unemployment. She has said that unemployment statistics “are not just statistics to me. Long-term unemployment is devastating to workers and their families. The toll is simply terrible on the mental and physical health of workers.” Laudable sentiments.Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Beware Forecasters Who Are Certain They Are Right - The Weekly Standard (blog)
Our economy is increasingly policy-driven, at least in the near- and medium-terms. What Congress and the president do or don’t do, what incoming Federal Reserve Board chairman Janet Yellen does or doesn’t do, will be important determinants of our growth, inflation, and job creation rates. So here is an attempt to see through the mist of obfuscation that is a feature of political and policy-making discourse, and spy the contours of future policy. Start with the fact that the monetary policy gurus at the Federal Reserve Board have made it no secret that they would very much like to dismount the tiger that is QE3 -- asset purchases and money printing -- without turning slow growth into no growth or a recession. The only question is when -- sooner if some monetary policy committee members have their way, later if incoming chairman Janet Yellen prevails. Add a second fact: the belief by a majority of Fed policy makers that monetary policy works: (1) printing money keeps interest rates at or near zero, (2) zero interest rates in turn force investors to hunt for yield, which in turn (3) drives up asset prices (houses and shares), (4) creating a “wealth effect” that encourages spending by those fortunate enough to own homes and shares, (5) thereby promoting economic growth or at minimum preventing a recession.Not everyone agrees that this five-step recovery program will produce sustainable, sober growth. After all, despite the fact that the Fed has been buying up assets and printing money at the impressive pace of $85 billion per month, the annual growth rate remains below 2 percent, and job creation, which averaged around 200,000 per month before the Fed began its asset-purchase program, is now averaging closer to 140,000. And if printing money could produce wealth, citizens from Argentina to Zimbabwe would be as rich as Croesus, rather than watching the value of their cash evaporate before they can get to the stores to spend it. Which is one reason that Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and due to become Yellen’s thorn-in-chief when he joins the monetary policy committee (technically, the Open Market Committee) in 2014, says there is a point at which printing money becomes an “agent of financial recklessness” … and worries because “none of us really knows where that tipping point is.” That admirable confession of uncertainty marks Fisher as a man to be listened to. When the monetary policy committee meets in a few weeks’ time it will face this set of facts:· The economy is growing steadily but slowly, with such growth as there is fuelled by housing and auto sales, two sectors especially sensitive to increases in interest rates, which means that higher rates might have a significant impact on overall growth.· The unemployment rate has been falling, but in good measure only because so many workers have become too discouraged to continue looking for work. And many of the jobs being created are part-time only. · Inflation, which many Fed critics feared would heat up as the printing presses rolled, remains below the 2 percent rate the Fed considers desirable, and there is more talk of possible deflation and a Japan-style lost decade than of an inflationary spurt. · Policies that stifle growth seem to be preferred by our politicians. Fiscal policy is tightening as Republicans turn back President Obama’s demand for another round of stimulus spending on infrastructure, premiums paid by businesses and individuals for health insurance are rocketing skyward to discourage hiring as the provisions of Obamacare come into effect, and congress is preparing to allow benefits to the long-term unemployed expire.From which one can conclude either that the Fed should run the presses even faster, or that the asset-buying, money-printing program known as QE3 should be wound down. Which brings us back to Yellen, and to the social values that always underlie economic policy-making. The incoming chairman would rather risk inflation and the distortions produced by zero interest rates than continued high unemployment. She has said that unemployment statistics “are not just statistics to me. Long-term unemployment is devastating to workers and their families. The toll is simply terrible on the mental and physical health of workers.” Laudable sentiments.
Start with the fact that the monetary policy gurus at the Federal Reserve Board have made it no secret that they would very much like to dismount the tiger that is QE3 -- asset purchases and money printing -- without turning slow growth into no growth or a recession. The only question is when -- sooner if some monetary policy committee members have their way, later if incoming chairman Janet Yellen prevails. Add a second fact: the belief by a majority of Fed policy makers that monetary policy works: (1) printing money keeps interest rates at or near zero, (2) zero interest rates in turn force investors to hunt for yield, which in turn (3) drives up asset prices (houses and shares), (4) creating a “wealth effect” that encourages spending by those fortunate enough to own homes and shares, (5) thereby promoting economic growth or at minimum preventing a recession.Not everyone agrees that this five-step recovery program will produce sustainable, sober growth. After all, despite the fact that the Fed has been buying up assets and printing money at the impressive pace of $85 billion per month, the annual growth rate remains below 2 percent, and job creation, which averaged around 200,000 per month before the Fed began its asset-purchase program, is now averaging closer to 140,000. And if printing money could produce wealth, citizens from Argentina to Zimbabwe would be as rich as Croesus, rather than watching the value of their cash evaporate before they can get to the stores to spend it. Which is one reason that Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and due to become Yellen’s thorn-in-chief when he joins the monetary policy committee (technically, the Open Market Committee) in 2014, says there is a point at which printing money becomes an “agent of financial recklessness” … and worries because “none of us really knows where that tipping point is.” That admirable confession of uncertainty marks Fisher as a man to be listened to. When the monetary policy committee meets in a few weeks’ time it will face this set of facts:· The economy is growing steadily but slowly, with such growth as there is fuelled by housing and auto sales, two sectors especially sensitive to increases in interest rates, which means that higher rates might have a significant impact on overall growth.· The unemployment rate has been falling, but in good measure only because so many workers have become too discouraged to continue looking for work. And many of the jobs being created are part-time only. · Inflation, which many Fed critics feared would heat up as the printing presses rolled, remains below the 2 percent rate the Fed considers desirable, and there is more talk of possible deflation and a Japan-style lost decade than of an inflationary spurt. · Policies that stifle growth seem to be preferred by our politicians. Fiscal policy is tightening as Republicans turn back President Obama’s demand for another round of stimulus spending on infrastructure, premiums paid by businesses and individuals for health insurance are rocketing skyward to discourage hiring as the provisions of Obamacare come into effect, and congress is preparing to allow benefits to the long-term unemployed expire.From which one can conclude either that the Fed should run the presses even faster, or that the asset-buying, money-printing program known as QE3 should be wound down. Which brings us back to Yellen, and to the social values that always underlie economic policy-making. The incoming chairman would rather risk inflation and the distortions produced by zero interest rates than continued high unemployment. She has said that unemployment statistics “are not just statistics to me. Long-term unemployment is devastating to workers and their families. The toll is simply terrible on the mental and physical health of workers.” Laudable sentiments.