Brainard: How Should We Think about Full Employment in the Federal Reserve's Dual Mandate?

From federalreserve.gov

I want to thank Jason Furman and David Laibson for inviting me to join your economics class. I often found it difficult in introductory economics to connect the abstract concepts in the textbooks to the real-world issues I cared about. So the one message I hope you remember from today is that economics provides powerful tools to enable you to analyze and affect the issues that matter most to you.1 With jobs down by 10 million relative to pre-pandemic levels, one issue that matters fundamentally to all of us is achieving full employment. So today I want to talk about both the Federal Reserve's responsibilities with ... (full story)