Jeffrey Lacker on the History of Fed Credit Policy and the Four Doctrines of Fed Lending

Jeffrey Lacker is a senior affiliated scholar at the Mercatus Center, and he previously worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, where he served as its president from 2004 to 2017. Jeff is also a returning guest to the podcast, and he rejoins David on Macro Musings to talk about the history of the Federal Reserve’s credit policy, as well as a recent Shadow Open Market Committee conference.

Transcript for this week’s episode.

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Jeffrey’s Mercatus profile

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Related Links:

*A 50-Year Retrospective on the Shadow Open Market Committee and its Role in Monetary Policy* — A conference hosted by the Hoover Institution

*From the “Lender of Last Resort” to “Too Big to Fail” to “Financial System Savior”: Federal Reserve Credit Policy and the Shadow Open Market Committee* by Jeffrey Lacker

*Last Resort Lending: Classical Thought vs. Modern Federal Reserve Practice* by Jeffrey Lacker

Timestamps:

(00:00:00) – Intro

(00:01:47) – The Shadow Open Market Committee and its Contributions Throughout Time

(00:05:32) – Highlights from the Recent Shadow Open Market Committee Conference

(00:10:17) – From FAIT Back to FIT?

(00:14:07) – *Federal Reserve Credit Policy and the Shadow Open Market Committee*: Motivation and Summary

(00:16:05) – Breaking Down the Difference Between Credit Policy and Monetary Policy

(00:22:10) – The Four Doctrines of Fed Lending: The Monetary Stability Doctrine

(00:28:56) – The Four Doctrines of Fed Lending: The Real Bills Doctrine

(00:34:49) – The Four Doctrines of Fed Lending: Warburg’s Mercantilism

(00:39:11) – The Four Doctrines of Fed Lending: Too-big-to-fail and the Reluctant Samaritan

(00:47:45) – Solutions for Improving the System Moving Forward

(00:55:25) – Outro