Dan Kervick: Yellen Needs to Tell Politicians to Stop Passing the Buck to the Fed
By Dan Kervick, who does research in decision theory and analytic metaphysics. Cross posted from New Economic Perspectives
Evan Soltas is hoping that President Obama’s appointment of Janet Yellen signifies a new administration commitment to jobs and economic growth.
Unfortunately, Soltas seems to be one of those folks who is convinced that our failures over the past five years have much to do with a monetary policy that has been insufficiently “accommodative”. That’s just another version of the “if you only have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail” thinking. If you think the Fed has to fix the economy, sure, you’d think the Fed hasn’t done enough. But the Fed isn’t in a position to pull us out of this ditch, and Yellen should quit enabling the idea that it can.
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