, Columnist
The Fed Is Doing What It’s Been Told
It is fulfilling the terms of its mandate not wisely, but too well.
Success at a cost.
Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
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The Federal Reserve is often described as having a double mandate — to keep both unemployment and inflation down. But that’s not quite accurate. The exact wording of the Federal Reserve Reform Act of 1977, the most recent instruction from Congress to the central bank, is that it: