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Session 5: Inflation Targeting
Inflation targeting as a Fed policy methodology requires a good inflation definition. This panel will discuss the PCE and CPI, what they are, and how to use them.Will either or both work as a target? Can either or both truly measure inflation? Is it wise to base Fed policymaking on one of these numbers? This panel will try to find the answers.
Presentations
Harvey Rosenblum: The Trimmed Mean PCE Inflation Rate: A fitter, trimmer core measure
Links of Interest
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Research Department
Stephen Cecchetti's home page at Brandeis
Speakers
David Kotok
Chairman and Chief Investment Officer
Cumberland Advisers
David R. Kotok co-founded Cumberland Advisors in 1973 and has been its Chief Investment Officer since inception. He holds a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an M.S. in Organizational Dynamics from The School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. His articles and financial market comments have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, and other publications. He has appeared on CNN, CNBC, and Bloomberg TV.
Mr. Kotok currently serves as a Director and Program Chairman of the Global Interdependence Center (GIC). He is a member of the National Business Economics Issues Council (NBEIC), the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), the Philadelphia Council for Business Economics (PCBE) and the Philadelphia Financial Economists Group (PFEG). Mr. Kotok has served as a Commissioner of the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) and on the Treasury Transition Teams for NJ Governors Kean and Whitman. He has also served as a board member of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and as Chairman of NJ Casino Reinvestment Development Authority.
Harvey Rosenblum
Executive Vice President and Director of Research
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Harvey Rosenblum is executive vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. In this capacity, he serves as economic policy advisor to the Bank's president and as an associate economist for the Federal Open Market Committee, which formulates the nation's monetary policy.
Rosenblum is also a past president and a member the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), a prestigious trade association whose 3,000 members are the leading business economists in the United States and many other countries. Past presidents of NABE include several Federal Reserve presidents as well as former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. Rosenblum is currently serving as Executive Director of the North American Economics and Finance Association He also is a member of the Product Development and Small Business Incubator Board, appointed by the governor of Texas.
A widely recognized expert on both the national and Texas economies, Rosenblum has written articles for such publications as The Journal of Finance, New York Times, Southwest Economy and The Handbook of Banking Strategy.
Active in economic education, Rosenblum is a visiting professor of finance at Southern Methodist University, teaching courses in contemporary issues on monetary policy and financial institutions and markets.
Rosenblum received a B.A. in economics from the University of Connecticut in 1965 and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1972.
He began his career with the Federal Reserve in 1970 as an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, advancing through the ranks to vice president and associate director of research in 1983. He was also a visiting professor of finance with DePaul University from 1973 until 1985. He joined the Dallas Fed as senior vice president and director of research in 1985 and was promoted to executive vice president in 2005.
His current research interests focus on monetary policy, inflation and the growing impact of globalization on the U.S. economy and businesses.
Stephen G. Cecchetti
Professor of International Economics and Finance
Brandeis University
Stephen G. Cecchetti is currently the Barbara and Richard M. Rosenberg Professor of Global Finance at the International Business School, Brandeis University; and Director of Research at the Rosenberg Institute for Global Finance. He is also a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, an organization of distinguished academic economists who specialize in policy-oriented empirical studies of national and world economies; and a consultant to central banks around the world. He is currently serving as a consultant to the European Central Bank’s Inflation Persistence Project. Prior to joining the faculty at Brandeis, he was Professor of Economics at Ohio State University. From August 1997 to September 1999, he was Executive Vice President and Director of Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as well as Associate Economist of the Federal Open Market Committee.
In addition to his teaching, Professor Cecchetti has been editor of the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking from 1992 to 2001, and on the editorial boards of the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Literature, and the Economic Policy Review of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He recently published a textbook entitled Money, Banking and Financial Markets, as well as over fifty articles in academic and policy journals on a variety of topics, including banking, securities markets and monetary policy. Professor Cecchetti is also a regular contributor to the Financial Times.
Professor Cecchetti received a S.B. in Economics from M.I.T. in 1977, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1982.
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