CROWE hosted James Bullard, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, on March 28, 2019. A crowd of community members, students, and faculty packed the Dejope Residence Hall on campus for the public seminar.
The evening began with remarks from CROWE Director, Noah Williams.
Williams summarized the state of the economies in Wisconsin and the US, focusing in particular on the labor market. As unemployment has fallen, the labor market has become tight, particularly in Wisconsin where the unemployment has never been this low for this long. But going forward, labor force challenges driven largely by demographic factors may limit future growth. The population has aged nationwide, but particularly in Wisconsin where the fraction of the population over 55 years old has grown by 10 percentage points since 2000. View Williams’ slides here.
Williams also highlighted a forthcoming CROWE report by Faculty Fellow James Walker on interstate migration. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Walker has found that migration rates have not declined over time. Data problems have led to an erroneous conclusion, which has become widespread. The report will delve further into migration and the factors affecting it, which is particularly important for a state like Wisconsin which needs workers.
CROWE economist Simeon Alder introduced his work, “Business Dynamism in the U.S. and in Wisconsin”, which is available on the CROWE website at this link.
President James Bullard presented his recent working paper, “Optimal Monetary Policy for the Masses” which examines whether monetary policy can be conducted in a way that benefits all households even in a world with substantial income, financial wealth and consumption inequality. In the paper, nominal GDP targeting constitutes “optimal monetary policy for the masses,” according to Bullard. To view slides from Bullard’s talk, click here.
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