U.S. Monetary Policy: Looking Back to Find the Future

Needless to say, it's a great pleasure for both Margaret and me to have this opportunity to return to IU, where we spent four very happy years between mid-1966 and mid-1970. It's also a pleasure to share this special occasion with Ed Boehne and Lyle Gramley—physically here in Bloomington with Ed and in spirit at least with Lyle. I need to tell you candidly, if you don't know it already, that I am definitely the low man on the ladder tonight. Lyle worked both at the Kansas City Fed and the Board of Governors. At the Board he was a distinguished senior staff economist and subsequently a Federal Reserve governor. He was also a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers under President Carter. Ed is now the senior participant in the Federal Open Market Committee in terms of length of service, and I exaggerate not a whit when I tell you that Ed is one of the most respected members of the FOMC, not only because of his long experience but also because of his sound judgment, which most of us in this room would recognize as good old-fashioned Hoosier common sense. (Ed is not only an IU Hoosier but an out-and-out native Hoosier.) So I am a little intimidated frankly to be in such exalted company, but I'm delighted to be back nonetheless.