{"id":50988,"date":"2019-11-14T08:00:42","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T13:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ino.com\/blog\/?p=50988"},"modified":"2019-11-13T17:18:27","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T22:18:27","slug":"the-times-they-are-a-changin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwtest.ino.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/the-times-they-are-a-changin\/","title":{"rendered":"The Times They Are A' Changin'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talk about charter creep. This is more like a charter leap.<\/p>\n

As we know well by now, the Federal Reserve\u2019s famous \u201cdual mandate\u201d is to promote price stability and maximum sustainable employment. But as we also know, the Fed really has a third mandate, maintaining moderate long-term interest rates (don\u2019t ask me why they still call it a dual mandate).<\/p>\n

So it should be no surprise, then, that the Fed has now gone way beyond that dual (or treble) mandate by wholeheartedly injecting itself into what is really a political debate, namely climate change. And how ironic it is that it rose to the forefront during the same week that the U.S. withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement. <\/p>\n

Last week Fed officials were out in force, declaring that climate change would now be a major factor in not only how it regulates federally chartered commercial banks but also how it conducts U.S. monetary policy.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, in a speech at the GARP Global Risk Forum<\/a>, Kevin Stiroh, an executive vice president responsible for regulating banks at the New York Fed, said financial firms need to take the dangers and costs of climate change into their risk-management decisions. <\/p>\n

\u201cClimate change has significant consequences for the U.S. economy and financial sector through slowing productivity growth, asset revaluations, and sectoral reallocations of business activity,\u201d he said. \u201cThe U.S. economy has experienced more than $500 billion in direct losses over the last five years due to climate and weather-related events.\u201d<\/p>\n

While noting that \u201cit is beyond our mandate to advocate or provide incentives for a particular transition path,\u201d Stiroh said financial regulators \u201ccan use our tools to ensure financial institutions are prepared for and resilient to all types of relevant risks, including climate-related events.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was a prelude to Friday\u2019s big event, namely the San Francisco Fed\u2019s conference on climate change and economic risks<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cClimate change is an economic issue we can\u2019t afford to ignore,\u201d Mary Daly, the president of the bank and host of the conference, said. \u201cThere\u2019s little doubt that we need to recognize, examine, and prepare for these risks in order to fulfill our core responsibilities.\u201d <\/p>\n

Earlier in the week, Daly said, \u201cI don\u2019t see that as anything outside of our mission. In fact, I think it\u2019s squarely in our mission and important for us to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was seconded by Atlanta Fed leader Raphael Bostic, who told reporters \u201cthat addressing climate-change issues is a core responsibility for the central bank now,\u201d according to the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n

That brought up Fed governor Lael Brainard, who said, \u201cIf prices of properties do not accurately reflect climate-related risks, a sudden correction could result in losses to financial institutions, which in turn reduce lending in the economy,\u201d she said. \u201cBanks also need to manage risks surrounding potential loan losses resulting from business interruptions and bankruptcies associated with natural disasters.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, all of this sounds reasonable, since financial losses could certainly affect banks\u2019 safety and soundness. But Brainard went well beyond the possible impact of climate change on the commercial banks that the Fed supervises too how it could affect Fed monetary policy, which seems like a huge reach. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo the extent that climate change and the associated policy responses affect productivity and long-run economic growth, there may be implications for the long-run neutral level of the real interest rate, which is a key consideration in monetary policy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Now, regardless of your thinking on climate change, it should baffle you why, when the Fed has a hard-enough job conducting monetary policy with quantifiable or fairly accurate data at its disposal \u2013 inflation, employment, economic growth, retail sales, capital expenditures, stock market performance, bond yields, loan demand, etc. \u2013 it is planning to add into its calculations events that are totally unpredictable, be they hurricanes, high (or low) temperatures, forest fires, snowfall, rainfall, drought, earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, etc., etc.<\/p>\n

Do all of those things result in monetary damages? Certainly. They always have and always will. Do smart businesses, banks, and people in general already prepare for those things the best they can by putting money aside for them or borrowing money if they need to after the fact? Yes.<\/p>\n

But conducting monetary policy? How will the Fed actually do that? And, perhaps most importantly, what if it\u2019s way off in its forecasts, as it has proven to be over the past several decades without adding climate change into the mix? <\/p>\n

Brainard herself noted the challenges in doing that. <\/p>\n

\u201cBecause there is considerable uncertainty about the persistence, breadth, and magnitude of climate-related shocks to the economy, it could be challenging to assess what adjustments to monetary policy are likely to be most effective at keeping the economy operating at potential with maximum employment and price stability,\u201d she said in her San Francisco speech.<\/p>\n

No kidding.<\/p>\n

The Fed makes enough bad calls on monetary policy and bank regulation using what it does know. Imagine what we can expect when the Fed tries to predict the weather.<\/p>\n

Visit back to read my next article! <\/p>\n

George Yacik<\/a>
\nINO.com Contributor - Fed & Interest Rates<\/p>\n

Disclosure: This article is the opinion of the contributor themselves. The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. This contributor is not receiving compensation (other than from INO.com) for their opinion.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Talk about charter creep. This is more like a charter leap. As we know well by now, the Federal Reserve\u2019s famous \u201cdual mandate\u201d is to promote price stability and maximum sustainable employment. But as we also know, the Fed really has a third mandate, maintaining moderate long-term interest rates (don\u2019t ask me why they still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":50991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6920],"tags":[14954,8524,6824,6938,5442],"class_list":["post-50988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ino-com-contributors","tag-climate-change","tag-fed-monetary-policy","tag-federal-open-market-committee-fomc","tag-george-yacik","tag-the-federal-reserve"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Times They Are A' Changin' - INO.com Trader's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Fed declared that climate change would be a major factor in how it regulates federally chartered commercial banks and how it conducts US monetary policy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wwwtest.ino.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/the-times-they-are-a-changin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Times They Are A' Changin' - 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