Must-Read: Josh Bivens and Dean Baker (2016): The Wrong Tool for the Right Job

Must-Read: Josh Bivens and Dean Baker (2016): The Wrong Tool for the Right Job: “Raising interest rates is a poor strategy for managing asset bubbles… http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/bubbles-2016-05.pdf

…Low interest rates did not cause the housing bubble of the early 2000s and higher interest rates would have been ineffective at preventing it. To deflate an asset bubble interest rates would have to be raised to levels that would cause enormous damage to the labor market. Fortunately, the Federal Reserve has numerous tools besides rate increases that would be more effective and inflict less collateral damage on the nonfinancial side of the economy…