Bill Dudley

BILL DUDLEY IS A BLOOMBERG OPINION COLUMNIST AND SENIOR ADVISER TO BLOOMBERG ECONOMICS. A SENIOR RESEARCH SCHOLAR AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, HE SERVED AS PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF NEW YORK AND AS VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE FEDERAL OPEN MARKET COMMITTEE.

US President Donald Trump (above) keeps turning up the pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower short-term rates, publicly expressing his dissatisfaction with chair Jerome Powell.

America, this isn’t how you lower interest rates

If US officials really want to get interest rates down, they have superior options – including discarding policies that push in the...

Inflation expectations play a crucial role in determining the cost of fighting actual inflation. When they remain well-anchored, as in the past five years, the Fed can manage without pushing unemployment up too high.
THE BOTTOM LINE

Stagflation is now America’s best-case scenario

DON’T expect the Federal Reserve to rescue the US economy from the epic tariffs the Trump administration has imposed on imports from...

FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve building is seen before the Federal Reserve board is expected to signal plans to raise interest rates in March as it focuses on fighting inflation in Washington, U.S., January 26, 2022.      REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
THE BOTTOM LINE

The Fed’s next big policy rethink needs rethinking

The central bank needs to enact a framework for quantitative easing, establish a regime to assess quantitative measures, and change its interest-rate...

If the US Federal Reserve had begun to tighten monetary policy sooner, the peak in short-term rates would likely have been considerably lower, resulting in fewer losses.
THE BOTTOM LINE

The Fed’s quantitative easing programme has cost too much

The total bill could exceed US$500 billion. A proper evaluation should make the next one less expensive

While recent US economic news has been reassuring, the economy isn't out of the woods.
THE BOTTOM LINE

A US soft landing? Even the Fed doesn’t believe it

AFTER a string of encouraging data, markets are displaying increasing optimism that the US Federal Reserve might be done with its battle...