speeches · October 17, 2018
Regional President Speech
James Bullard · President
Home > Former President Jim Bullard > Speeches, Presentations and Commentary
From the President
Modernizing Monetary Policy Rules
October 18-19, 2018
Presentation (pdf) | Press Release | Video | Photos
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President and CEO James Bullard spoke Thursday
morning, Oct. 18, to the Economic Club of Memphis. A participant on the Federal Open
Market Committee, Bullard focused his presentation on modernizing monetary policy rules.
About 150 business and community leaders, as well as economists, attended the event, held
on the campus of the University of Memphis.
During his talk, Bullard discussed modernizing a popular monetary policy rule, a version of
the Taylor rule, whose construction was based on U.S. data from the 1980s and 1990s. Since
then, he noted, three important macroeconomic developments have altered key elements of
policy rule construction. These developments are lower short-term real interest rates, the
disappearing Phillips curve and better measures of in�ation expectations. “Incorporating
these developments yields a modernized policy rule that suggests the current level of the
policy rate is about right over the forecast horizon,” Bullard said.
Video of Presentation and Audience Q&A:
Bullard was on a two-day tour of Memphis, Tenn., where the St. Louis Fed has a Branch.
Besides meeting with civic leaders, Bullard toured a charter school that once housed the
Memphis Branch and attended a special dinner commemorating the Branch’s centennial.
Among other activities, he met with current and former members of the Branch’s board of
directors on Friday, Oct. 19.
Bullard frequently visits communities in the four zones that make up the St. Louis Fed’s
District. The other three zones are based in Little Rock, Ark., Louisville, Ky., and St. Louis.
Before his presentation Thursday, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard mingled with some of the
approximately 150 people in attendance at the Economic Club of Memphis event.
Download High Resolution Photo
In his presentation about monetary policy rules, Bullard focused on modernizing the long-popular Taylor rule.
Download High Resolution Photo
Another stop for Bullard was the Memphis Grizzlies Preparatory Charter School. The school’s building was
once the home of the Memphis Branch of the St. Louis Fed. The school’s library is located in what was the
Branch’s vault. Taking questions from some of the students were (from the left) Bullard; Douglas Scarboro,
senior vice president and regional executive of the Branch; Anthony Cremerius, a Branch retiree who had
worked in the building when it was occupied by the Branch; and Joey Gambino, an assistant vice president in
the Branch’s cash department and a longtime volunteer at the school.
Download High Resolution Photo
Cite this document
APA
James Bullard (2018, October 17). Regional President Speech. Speeches, Federal Reserve. https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/regional_speeche_20181018_james_bullard
BibTeX
@misc{wtfs_regional_speeche_20181018_james_bullard,
author = {James Bullard},
title = {Regional President Speech},
year = {2018},
month = {Oct},
howpublished = {Speeches, Federal Reserve},
url = {https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/regional_speeche_20181018_james_bullard},
note = {Retrieved via When the Fed Speaks corpus}
}