Fed’s Lacker Says Making Jobs an ‘Imperative’ Risks Inflation

Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Jeffrey Lacker said a Fed policy devoted primarily to reducing unemployment risks damaging the central bank’s credibility in containing inflation.

“With inflation reasonably close to any plausible definition of price stability, and all expectations measures pointing in the right direction, making unemployment a policy imperative poses clear risks to the credibility of our long run inflation goals,” Lacker said yesterday in a speech in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.