2015 Federal Reserve Conference Lectures and Readings

Perspectives From and On the Federal Reserve System

FTE Professional Teachers Association

In partnership with the

Federal Reserve Board of Governors

April 23 – 25, 2015

Washington D.C.

Dr. Lawrence H. White

George Mason University

A Century of the Federal Reserve: Success or Failure?

Readings:

• Bagehot, Walter, Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market. E. Johnstone; Hartley Withers, eds. 1873. Library of Economics and Liberty. 29 February 2012.
  • Chapter 7: “A More Exact Account of the Mode in Which the Bank of England Has Discharged It’s Duty of Maintaining a Good Bank Reserve”
  • http://www.econlib.org/library/Bagehot/bagLom7.html (Print icon is located above the right end of the dark blue navigation bar.)
• White, Lawrence, with William Lastrapes and George Selgin, “Has the Fed Been A Failure?” Journal of Macroeconomics, 2012. (Click here to download pdf.)
• “The Troubling Suppression of Competition from Alternative Monies: The Case of the Liberty Dollar and E-gold” CATO Journal, Spring/Summer 2014, Vol. 34 No. 2.
  • http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/2014/5/cato-journal-v34n2-5.pdf

Dr. James Dorn

CATO Institute

What Monetary Policy Can and Can’t Do

Readings:

• Dorn, James. Ed. “Was the Fed a Good Idea?” CATO Journal, Spring/Summer 2014, Vol. 34 No. 2. (Print articles #1, 2, 5, 6 & 7 listed below. Pdfs linked below article title. If you would prefer to download the entire Spring/Summer 2014 edition of the Cato Journal, visit http://www.cato.org/cato-journal/springsummer-2014)
  • “A Limited Central Bank: by Charles I Plosser
    • http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/2014/5/cato-journal-v34n2-1.pdf
  • “A Century of Central Banking: What Have We Learned?” by Jerry L. Jordan
    • http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/2014/5/cato-journal-v34n2-2.pdf
  • “Clearing House Currency” by Richard H. Timberlake Jr.
    • http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/2014/5/cato-journal-v34n2-6.pdf
  • “Nominal GDP Targeting: A Simple Rule to Improve Fed. Performance” by Scott Sumner
    • http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/2014/5/cato-journal-v34n2-7.pdf
• Feldstein, Martin, “What Powers for the Federal Reserve?” draft for the Journal of Economic Literature Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 2009.
  • http://www.nber.org/feldstein/fedpowers.pdf