Rep. Kevin Brady has introduced a “Sound Dollar Act.”
The bill would end the Federal Reserve’s dual responsibility to stabilize both employment and prices. It would limit the Fed to price stability only. But assuming the Fed should even exist, did the dual mandate ever make sense?
Should the Fed really try to reduce UNemployment by increasing the money supply? Doesn’t the jobs goal contradict the stable prices goal?
And how could legalized counterfeiting really help if the unemployment problem has a non-monetary cause, like bad laws, taxes, or regulations?
But it get’s worse . . .
As Ira Stroll shows, state-level employment rates vary widely, based on differing taxes, regulations, and resources. But what can the Fed do about that? Should the Fed really increase national inflation to counter unemployment caused by state-level policies? And do “national” employment stats even make sense, given the impact state laws have?
The employment mandate contradicts the inflation mandate, and state-level polices contradict the Fed’s national policies.
So did the dual mandate ever make sense? The answer is no.