SUBJECT: BUSINESS LEADERS FORUM DATE: SEPT. 29, 2011 MEDIA OUTLET: PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER AUTHOR: MIKE ARMSTRONG
PhillyInc: Philly Fed chief: Taming inflation is key to economy When you're one of 10 people who gets to vote on U.S. monetary policy, your words get dissected as if you were the manager of the division-winning Philadelphia Phillies. Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia president Charles I. Plosser is no Charlie Manuel. But listen to enough of their post-game or post-Fed-meeting interviews and you can see that they are similar in one respect: Both managers like to keep things simple. In Manuel's case, it's expecting his hitters to hit, his pitchers to pitch, and his fielders to field. As for Plosser, it's warning the Federal Reserve against straying from what he sees as the central bank's main mission: fighting inflation. To him, keeping prices stable makes it possible for the Fed to fulfill its other mandates: promoting maximum employment and moderate interest rates. Inflation, or more specifically Plosser's long push to prod the Fed into adopting an explicit numerical objective for inflation, was a big part of his speech Thursday at the Villanova School of Business'second annual Business Leaders Forum at the university's conference center in Radnor. About 10 minutes in, as Plosser was talking about the current inflationary environment, the lights went out in the conference center's dining room. He didn't miss a beat, quipping: "You mention QE2, and everything goes dark." Then, addressing the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, the president of Villanova University, who had introduced him, Plosser asked, "Father, did you have anything to do with this?" As any university president would when surrounded by a roomful of business leaders, Donohue replied: "If we had more donations, we could keep the lights on." A little levity goes a long way at a time when so many fear that the U.S. economy of 2011 feels like 2008, and that we're slipping into another recession.
2011 Media Report Villanova School of Business Page 177