Download Appearances can be deceiving

Appearances can be deceiving
To many, the economy is strong enough to sustain a jolt of higher
rates. Richmond´s Jeff Lacker is a case in point:
The U.S. economy appears strong enough to warrant
significantly higher interest rates, Richmond Federal
Reserve Bank President Jeffrey Lacker said on Friday.
Lacker, who is not a voting member of the U.S. central
bank’s rate-setting committee this year, said he still
favors raising rates sooner than later and that the Fed’s
last policy meeting in July would have been a “good time”
to tighten policy.
Speaking to a group of economists in Richmond, Lacker
argued that a range of economic analysis suggests the Fed’s
benchmark overnight interest rate – the federal funds rate
– is currently too low.
“It appears that the funds rate should be significantly
higher than it is now,” he said in the speech.
As the chart shows, for the past 23 years, inflation (PCE-Core) has
been ‘cornered’.
What we dearly miss is some of the robust growth the economy
experienced during the Greenspan years (1987 – 2005)