Political constraints on monetary policy during the Great Inflation

The U.S. Great Inflation of the 1970s was characterized by repeated, failed attempts at disinflation by the Federal Reserve as well as periods of inaction despite rising inflation. Previous research has attributed these failures to policymakers’ “misperceptions” about monetary policy and the macroeconomy. This paper argues instead that the Fed’s behavior during this period can be explained as a response to political constraints. Members of the Fed understood that a serious attempt to tackle inflation would be unpopular with the public and would generate opposition from Congress and the Executive branch. The result was a commitment to the policy of gradualism, under which the Fed would attempt to reduce inflation with mild policies that would not trigger an outright recession, and premature abandonment of anti-inflation policies at the first sign of recession. The Fed managed to disinflate successfully under Chairman Volcker only when the political constraints on Fed policy were lifted after 1979, allowing the Fed to abandon the policy of gradualism and knowingly take actions that risked recession. Evidence for this explanation of Fed behavior is found in Minutes and Transcripts of FOMC meetings and speeches of Fed chairmen

Political constraints on monetary policy during the Great Inflation

The U.S. Great Inflation of the 1970s was characterized by repeated, failed attempts at disinflation by the Federal Reserve as well as periods of inaction despite rising inflation. Previous research has attributed these failures to policymakers’ “misperceptions” about monetary policy and the macroeconomy. This paper argues instead that the Fed’s behavior during this period can be explained as a response to political constraints. Members of the Fed understood that a serious attempt to tackle inflation would be unpopular with the public and would generate opposition from Congress and the Executive branch. The result was a commitment to the policy of gradualism, under which the Fed would attempt to reduce inflation with mild policies that would not trigger an outright recession, and premature abandonment of anti-inflation policies at the first sign of recession. The Fed managed to disinflate successfully under Chairman Volcker only when the political constraints on Fed policy were lifted after 1979, allowing the Fed to abandon the policy of gradualism and knowingly take actions that risked recession. Evidence for this explanation of Fed behavior is found in Minutes and Transcripts of FOMC meetings and speeches of Fed chairmen.Great Inflation; monetary policy; Federal Reserve

Note on Shadowing and Diffraction in Deep-Inelastic Lepton Scattering

We discuss the close relation between shadowing in deep-inelastic lepton-nucleus scattering and diffractive photo- and leptoproduction of hadrons from free nucleons. We show that the magnitude of nuclear shadowing at small Bjorken-x, as measured by the E665 and NMC collaborations, is directly related to HERA data on the amount of diffraction in the scattering from free nucleons.Comment: 6 pages, Latex, to be published in Eur. Phys. J.

Scattering lengths of Nambu-Goldstone bosons off DD mesons and dynamically generated heavy-light mesons

Recent lattice QCD simulations of the scattering lengths of Nambu-Goldstone bosons off the $D$ mesons are studied using unitary chiral perturbation theory. We show that the Lattice QCD data are better described in the covariant formulation than in the heavy-meson formulation. The $D^*_{s0}(2317)$ can be dynamically generated from the coupled-channels $DK$ interaction without \textit{a priori} assumption of its existence. A new renormalization scheme is proposed which manifestly satisfies chiral power counting rules and has well-defined behavior in the infinite heavy-quark mass limit. Using this scheme we predict the heavy-quark spin and flavor symmetry counterparts of the $D^*_{s0}(2317)$.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures; to appear in Physical Review

Evidence-Based Home Visitation Programs Work to Put Children First

When low-income women become parents for the first time, they often need support, education and encouragement to be the best parent they can be. They truly want to succeed. Desire, unfortunately, is not enough. These women are usually most open to health care assistance, parenting tools, and a therapeutic relationship with a community health worker who provides in-home services. The best partnership for a therapeutic relationship is between a new mother and a nurse. Efficient home visitation programs can save lives and taxpayer dollars. Nurse-Family Partnership pairs an experienced BSN RN with a first-time low-income mother from pregnancy until her baby turns two years old. Without quality support the lives of our most vulnerable citizens can be in jeopardy

Political Constraints on Monetary Policy During the U.S. Great Inflation

This paper argues that the Federal Reserve’s failure to control inflation during the 1970s was due to constraints imposed by the political environment. Members of the Fed understood that a serious attempt to tackle inflation would be unpopular with the public and would generate opposition from Congress and the Executive branch. The result was a commitment to the policy of gradualism, under which the Fed would attempt to reduce inflation with mild policies that would not trigger an outright recession, and premature abandonment of anti-inflation policies at the first sign of recession. Alternative explanations, in particular misperceptions of the natural rate of unemployment and misunderstandings of the nature of inflation, do not provide a complete explanation for Fed policy at key turning points during the Great Inflation. Evidence for this explanation of Fed behavior is found in Minutes and Transcripts of FOMC meetings and speeches of Fed chairmen. Empirical analysis verifies that references to the political environment at FOMC meetings are correlated with the stance of monetary policy during this period.Great Inflation; Federal Reserve; monetary policy

Open-charm enhancement at FAIR?

We have calculated the D-meson spectral density at finite temperature within a self-consistent coupled-channel approach that generates dynamically the $\Lambda_c$ (2593) resonance. We find a small mass shift for the D-meson in this hot and dense medium while the spectral density develops a sizeable width. The reduced attraction felt by the D-meson in hot and dense matter together with the large width observed have important consequences for the D-meson production in the future CBM experiment at FAIR.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of 9th International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM2006), Los Angeles, USA, March 26-31, 200

Chiral Dynamics of Deeply Bound Pionic Atoms

We present and discuss a systematic calculation, based on two-loop chiral perturbation theory, of the pion-nuclear s-wave optical potential. A proper treatment of the explicit energy dependence of the off-shell pion self-energy together with (electromagnetic) gauge invariance of the Klein-Gordon equation turns out to be crucial. Accurate data for the binding energies and widths of the 1s and 2p levels in pionic ^{205}Pb and ^{207}Pb are well reproduced, and the notorious "missing repulsion" in the pion-nuclear s-wave optical potential is accounted for. The connection with the in-medium change of the pion decay constant is clarified.Comment: preprint ECT*-02-16, 4 pages, 3 figure

Low-energy interactions of Nambu-Goldstone bosons with DD mesons in covariant chiral perturbation theory

We calculate the scattering lengths of Nambu-Goldstone bosons interacting with $D$ mesons in a covariant formulation of chiral perturbation theory, which satisfies heavy-quark spin symmetry and analytical properties of loop amplitudes. We compare our results with previous studies performed using heavy meson chiral perturbation theory and show that recoil corrections are sizable in most cases.Comment: 3 figures and 4 table