Economic Letter

Central banks use macroeconomic models to help frame the issues that they face, to mold their ideas, and to guide them in their decisionmaking. While a wide range of models are available, economists are increasingly examining monetary policy issues and the design of optimal monetary policies in the context of “New Keynesian” macroeconomic models.

When Congress enacted the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) in 1977, its main goal was to address concerns that some banking institutions were not fully meeting the credit needs of qualified potential borrowers, particularly those in low- and moderate-income (LMI) and minority neighborhoods of inner cities. Since then, debate has continued over the need for, and the effectiveness of, the CRA.

Central banks and other policy institutions have a long history of using macroeconomic models to help prepare forecasts and to quantify the economic consequences of various policies. Likewise, private sector firms have long depended on models to summarize these complex interactions succinctly and to evaluate the likelihood of specific macroeconomic outcomes; this is especially true for financial institutions, where such models can help with capital investment and asset allocation decisions.

This Economic Letter summarizes the papers presented at a conference on “Interest Rates and Monetary Policy” held at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco on March 19 and 20, 2004, under the joint sponsorship of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

As a monetary policymaker, my main concern is the health of the U.S. economy. Although the economy turned in a pretty sluggish performance for a long while after the 2001 recession, it has shown some real strength over the last few quarters in terms of output growth and productivity.

Since the second half of the 1990s, the growth rate of labor productivity has been faster than at any time since the 1960s, especially in the manufacturing sector. This turnaround in labor productivity had led many to wonder whether there is something “new” going on in the U.S. economy, and, if so, whether it is sustainable.

There are enormous differences among countries in terms of what kinds of capital equipment they use. These differences are reflected in patterns of imports for the most part, since, except for a few highly advanced, equipment-producing countries, most countries import the vast majority of their equipment.

Since the double-digit inflation of the 1970s, the Federal Reserve has consistently pursued the goal of price stability in the United States. And, since the second half of 2002, the year-to-year increase in the core Consumer Price Index (that is, excluding the relatively volatile food and energy components) has been below 2%, which, according to Fed Governor Bernanke, is probably the de facto equivalent of price stability (Bernanke 2003).