Duluth Town Hall, October 30, 2012
Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota spoke at a Town Hall event in Duluth, Minnesota at the University of Minnesota-Duluth on October 30, 2012. He made some remarks, then took questions from the audience. Some of the event was captured on Twitter.
Tonight at 7PM Kocherlakota meets with students and the public in #Duluth for a town hall session about the Fed and its mandates. #MFedQandA- Kocherlakota’s opening remarks for a town hall session at #UMD discussing the Fed and its goals. #MFedQandA goo.gl/QUEfX
- Kocherlakota: the Fed’s mandated goals are clearly Main Street ones—to promote max employment and price stability. goo.gl/QUEfX
- Promoting max employment means Fed is charged w doing what it can to ensure Americans who want to work can do so. goo.gl/QUEfX
- Kocherlakota: Some observers argue that the Fed has done too much, has been too accommodative. I strongly disagree. goo.gl/QUEfX
- Kocherlakota now taking questions from the audience at #UMD. We will be tweeting more than usual as we follow the discussion. #MFedQandA
- Question from audience: Thoughts on economic impact of hurricane? #Sandy #MFedQandA
- Kocherlakota: General rule is natural disaster has short-term effect, but not large-scale economic consequences over long term. #MFedQandA
- Question about the natural rate of unemployment. Kocherlakota: Unemployment rate in long-run consistent w/ inflation target. #MFedQandA
- Kocherlakota: In 2010 Congress passed #DoddFrank to monitor systemic financial instability. Changes in infancy still. Safer over time.
- Question about the gold standard. Kocherlakota: Gold Standard puts limit on how you can conduct monetary policy. #MFedQandA
RT @LorcanRK: Isn't that the point of a gold standard? MT @MinneapolisFed Kocherlakota: Gold Standard puts limit on how you can conduct monetary policy- Kocherlakota: In ‘08/’09, Fed injected liquidity into mkts to prevent conditions from worsening; not able to if on Gold Standard. #MFedQandA
- Question about the ongoing issues in Europe and how that affects the US economy. #MFedQandA
- Kocherlakota: Past few years we’ve seen positive changes in US & some in Europe; optimistic that US could withstand Euro shocks. #MFedQandA
- Kocherlakota: In times of uncertainty, huge demand for limited number of safe assets; low interest rates symptom of uncertainty. #MFedQandA
- Question: How will the Fed unwind its assets it currently holds, like its mortgage-backed securities? #MFedQandA
- Kocherlakota: FOMC has planned for this; we will start selling them off at some point and also depend on assets being paid off. #MFedQandA
- More from the FOMC on the exit strategy, from June 2011: goo.gl/Dnce8 #MFedQandA
- Question: What do you say to people who have a need to grow their savings? #MFedQandA
- Kocherlakota: Big challenge for savers is huge demand for saving. Price is high and the yield is going to be low. (1/2) #MFedQandA
