What Have We Learned from 100 Years of Federal Reserve History?

In its first 100 years, the US Federal Reserve has performed at least as well as could have been expected given our limited understanding of how the economy operates, the Fed's institutional structure, and the political environment. In the future the Fed needs freedom to do its job. It should explain its actions to the public contemporaneously and be held accountable for any failure to achieve its objectives that could reasonably have been prevented. Joseph E. Gagnon testifies that his biggest worry is that the Fed faces more restrictions on its powers than other major central banks, potentially limiting its ability to achieve its objectives.