Yellen, stop trying! You don´t have a comic vein

You could think she was doing stand -up comedy in a rural bar:

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen voiced confidence in the durability of the U.S. economic expansion in the face of slowing global growth and turbulent financial markets at a closed-door meeting in Washington last weekend, according to two people familiar with her comments.

The people, who asked not to be named because the meeting was private, said Yellen told the Group of 30 that the economy looked to be on track to achieve growth of around 3 percent going forward. She also saw inflation eventually rising back up to the Fed’s 2 percent target as unemployment falls further, according to the people.

How do those “one-liners” stack up with reality?

For the last 56 months, real output growth has averaged 1.5% (2.1% if you leave out this year´s “winter blues”).

Yellen Stand-Up_1

Meanwhile, inflation has averaged just shy of 1.5% and has only barely surpassed the 2% target in two of the 56 months.

Yellen Stand-Up_2

Apparently that´s consistent with “being on track” to achieve 3% real growth (2025?) with inflation also rising to 2% at that time.

One thought on “Yellen, stop trying! You don´t have a comic vein

  1. Are Janet Yellin’s projections comedic, or faith-based?
    Janet Yellen this characterized as a dove, yet she is seeking a inflation rate under 2 percent. And how shall we define Chairman Volcker and his inflation rate target of nearly five percent?

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