Automatic Stabilizers in a Low-Rate Environment

February 2020, Paper: "Until the 2008–09 financial crisis, macroeconomic stabilization policy focused nearly exclusively on monetary policy. It made good sense. In terms of theory, if nominal rigidities are at the core of inefficient output fluctuations, monetary policy is exactly the right instrument to counter their adverse effects. In terms of practice, monetary policy is nimble and, by institutional design, largely protected from political winds. In terms of outcomes, the Great Moderation—the stability of output and inflation over more than 20 years (from the mid-1980s to 2007)— seemed to confirm the wisdom of that choice."