The Fed at 100: Can Monetary Policy Close the Growth Gap and Promote a Sound Dollar?

Thank you, Chairman Brady and Vice-Chair Klobuchar, for the opportunity to appear before you and your colleagues today. I commend you and the Joint Economic Committee for calling a hearing on this topic. It is right in a democratic society that independent central banks be accountable to elected officials for their performance and—over sufficiently long intervals to allow for sound judgments—for the goals they pursue. One hundred years seems like it would be a more than sufficient length of time for so doing, as would the 35 years since the 1978 Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act, to pick another anniversary. I would argue such a review is due nearly five years since the financial crisis and Great Recession began.