“Rethinking the Federal Reserve’s Policy Framework and Independence” Related Publications
This collection highlights research and analysis connected to the Levy Economics Institute’s Capitol Hill Series event on Federal Reserve policy and independence. Featuring insights from leading scholars, these publications provide additional context and depth to the themes explored in the day’s discussions.
Related publications
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Public Policy Brief No. 158March 04, 2025
That “Vision Thing”: Formulating a Winning Policy Agenda
Pavlina R. Tcherneva and L. Randall WrayAbstractFor a PDF version of this Public Policy Brief, please click here. There are many ways to lose a presidential election, and pundits have come up with a long list:…more
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Policy Note No. 2025/7September 19, 2025
No, the Fed Is NOT Independent—It Is a Creature of Congress
Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall WrayAbstractIn response to President Trump’s attack on the Federal Reserve, the natural critics of misguided monetary policy find themselves defending the Fed and the notion that the Fed is—and must…more
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One-Pager No. 8February 14, 2011
It’s Time to Rein In the Fed
L. Randall Wray and Scott FullwilerAbstractThe economic crisis that has gripped the US economy since 2007 has highlighted Congress’s limited oversight of the Federal Reserve, and the limited transparency of the Fed’s actions. And since…more
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Public Policy Brief No. 156December 08, 2021
Still Flying Blind after All These Years
Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and L. Randall WrayAbstractInstitute President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray contend that the prevailing approach to monetary policy and inflation is influenced by a set of concepts that are…more
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Policy Note No. 2023/3July 24, 2023
In Defense of Low Interest Rates
James K. GalbraithAbstractIn recalling John Maynard Keynes’s revolutionary theory of interest, reviewing the doctrines Keynes sought to overthrow, and analyzing the structural transformations of the US economy, James K. Galbraith maintains there…more
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Working Paper No. 124September 01, 1994
Flying Blind
Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and L. Randall WrayAbstractNo further information available.
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Research Project ReportApril 06, 2015
Reforming the Fed’s Policy Response in the Era of Shadow Banking
AbstractThis monograph is part of the Levy Institute’s Research and Policy Dialogue Project on Improving Governance of the Government Safety Net in Financial Crisis, a two-year project funded by the…more
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Policy Note No. 2024/1October 11, 2024
The Boy Who Cried Wolf About Government Debt
Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall WrayAbstractIn a New York Times editorial, David Leonhardt recounts Aesop’s apocryphal story about the boy and the wolf, warning that while deficit hawks have so far been wrong, the growing government debt will eventually bite. He reports the economic plans of both presidential candidates would add to the debt that will soon exceed GDP and grow to 130 percent of annual output under a President Harris, or 140 percent with a Trump presidency.
The story of the boy and the wolf was a fable, although it was within the realm of possibility. The fable of the debt wolf is not. While there are real world wolves—Leonhardt mentions climate catastrophe and autocratic leaders, and the authors would add rising inequality and the concentration of economic and political power in the hands of billionaires—authors Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray assert, federal debt is not one of them.
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Policy Note No. 6December 05, 2014
Why Raising Rates May Speed the Recovery
Jan KregelAbstractCriticisms of the Federal Reserve’s “unconventional” monetary policy response to the Great Recession have been of two types. On the one hand, the tripling in the size of the Fed’s…more
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Policy Note No. 7August 01, 2013
Debt Relief and the Fed’s Money-creation Power
William GreiderAbstractMonetary policy is running out of gas. Six years ago, in the heat of crisis, the Federal Reserve’s response was awesome. The Fed created trillions of dollars and flooded the…more
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