In the next economic downturn, the Federal Reserve and other central banks may need to roll out their big guns sooner and use them more aggressively, or risk getting mired in growth-sapping deflation or worse.That was the argument laid out Friday by a group of veteran monetary policy analysts and Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard, who called for using now-familiar policy tools like forward guidance more forcefully, and adopt new ones like capping interest rates to bolster the Fed's clout.
The broad approach appeared to have some support among other policymakers grappling with the how the Fed and other central banks should prepare to fight a future recession. If there is disagreement, it is not over the general idea that tools like massive bondbuying - or "quantitative easing" - are now a staple of central bank practice; it is over how specifically the Fed should spell out its future crisis-fighting plans in advance.
