¶ … Fed's Bullard: Current Fed Policy Much Easier Now Than in 2012, which was published by The Wall Street Journal on February 14th, 2013, financial reporter Michael S. Derby methodically examines the claims of Federal Reserve officials, who have stated that changes to their monetary policy have proven to be productive over the last year. The purpose of the article is to provide readers with access to the latest public statements made by Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard, a voting member of the monetary policy setting Federal Open Market Committee (Derby, 2013) who recently rendered his appraisal of the Fed's latest round of adjustments to its monetary policy. Derby makes reference to a crucial modification in which "the Fed decided to commit to keeping short-term interest rates near zero percent until what is now a 7.9% unemployment rate falls below 6.5%, as long as expected inflation doesn't go above 2.5%"...
The article also contains numerous quotes referencing Bullard's evaluation of the Fed's policy on the purchase of bonds, with the central bank official stating in a speech that "the open ended nature of the Fed's bond buying may mean that the current size of the purchases may need to be increased or decreased depending on how the economy performs" (Derby, 2013). The overall emphasis of Derby's article remains focused throughout on the new course embarked on by the Fed when it comes to monetary policy, with the author making it clear that these maneuvers continue to be economically effective.
After reading the article summarized above through a closely critical lens, an informed reader is left with a number of unanswered questions: Has…
