I n 2013 juliO rotemberG, an economist, proposed a theory of what drove once-in-a-generation shifts at the Federal Reserve: penitence. Something deplorable would happen in the economy, like the Depression in the 1930s or the great inflation of the 1970s. The central bank would be blamed. Then it would absorb the criticisms and change course. Monetary policymakers were, in effect, engaged in a decades-long process of trial and error.
This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline “Regime change”
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