Fed Officials Are Getting Real About the Limits of Their Power

  • Monetary policy makers increasingly blunt about their limits
  • Trends beyond their reach are smothering global growth

The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building stands in Washington, D.C.

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
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The Federal Reserve can’t do it alone.

For eight years it’s pressed the gas pedal -- lowering rates, buying bonds and declaring their absolute resolve to revive moribund growth. This has helped heal scars from the Great Recession, namely reducing unemployment to below 5 percent from a 10 percent peak.