Our Economic Times: Federal Reserve Remains Resistant on Policy

This column was published in Savannah Morning News.

On July 6, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the June employment report. The result: any optimism for an economic recovery gaining momentum has all but vanished. After adding a paltry 68,000 and 77,000 jobs in April and May, the U.S. economic recovery sputtered for another month by adding just 80,000 jobs in June. Compare these dismal numbers to the 250,000-plus jobs added per month in early 2012, and it is no surprise unemployment is seemingly planted above 8 percent. Given the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate of price stability and maximum employment, I submit that our nation’s central bank has resisted exercising substantive power to implement effective and timely monetary policy due mainly to untimely intervention and a misguided inflation-targeting policy...