Embrace of Monetary Policy Rule Strongest Ever by Fed Chair

Jay Powell went to Capitol Hill today for his first congressional testimony as Fed Chair. In addition, he submitted the Federal Reserve's annual Monetary Policy Report to Congress.  A lot of ground was covered in his testimony, follow-up questions, and in the report. Here, I want to highlight one very interesting and potentially significant part of his testimony. And that is Jay Powell's endorsement of monetary policy rules.

At the end of his written testimony, Jay Powell had this to say:

“In evaluating the stance of monetary policy, the FOMC routinely consults monetary policy rules that connect prescriptions for the policy rate with variables associated with our mandated objectives. Personally, I find these rule prescriptions helpful. Careful judgments are required about the measurement of the variables used, as well as about the implications of the many issues these rules do not take into account. I would like to note that this Monetary Policy Report provides further discussion of monetary policy rules and their role in the Federal Reserve's policy process...”

I believe this is the strongest embrace of monetary policy rules to date by any Fed chair. This is progress in my view. But it gets even better. The monetary policy report that Jay referenced lays out a number of monetary policy rules, including a price level target rule. That is a huge departure from past practice when most rule discussions were stated in terms of some Taylor rule.

Read more: Fed Chair Jay Powell on Monetary Policy Rules