Macroeconomic Principles and Monetary Policy

It's a great pleasure and honor for me to be invited to participate in this Forum, although I have to tell you that I was more than a little intimidated when I learned that I would be part of a panel featuring Bob King and Tom Sargent.1 I take some comfort, however, from what Mike Dotsey told me when he first contacted me about this program seven or eight months ago. He said the panel would focus on optimal monetary policy, but he wasn't expecting me to provide a highly technical analysis, or even a low tech analysis. Instead, he wanted me to talk about how I, as one fairly senior Fed monetary policymaker, use economic analysis and principles to arrive at policy positions and then present and defend them. This I think I can do, although I still feel a little uneasy with Bob and Tom so close at hand.