Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 05/2009

The Fed Makes History

John H. Makin

January 2009

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Abstract

On December 16, 2008, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke exercised decisive leadership at a watershed meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). In its official statement after the meeting, the committee pledged to "employ all available tools to promote the resumption of sustainable economic growth and to preserve price stability."[1] The pledge to preserve price stability was not a commitment to fight inflation, as is typical, but a highly unusual commitment to fight deflation.