Sunday, September 20, 2015

One of These Things is Not Like the Others

Among the steps the Fed has taken to increase transparency in recent years is the release of projections by the board members and regional bank presidents.  This includes the "dot plot" indicating each participant's belief about what the appropriate federal funds rate target will be at the end of this year and the next three years.

One of the dots from the latest release (I've indicated with a red arrow) shows a preference for a negative fed funds rate this year and next, and a much lower rate than everyone else expects at the end of 2017.
People on twitter seem to think its most likely Minneapolis Fed President Kocherlakota's dot.  It called to mind this, from the deep recesses of childhood memory:
(That's from Sesame Street). 

Of more serious interest, the projections also included a reduction in the median "longer run" federal funds target, to 3.5%, from 3.8% at the last release in June, and also a lower estimate of the "longer run" unemployment rate, which might be taken as a proxy for a NAIRU estimate (see Krugman).

2 comments:

The Arthurian said...

Great title for this post!

Bill C said...

Thanks, Art! My Sesame Street watching days are long past, but its amazing how much of it stuck in my mind.