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Re:Inequality, Interest Rates, Aging, and the Role of Centra... by AnimalMuppet on Wednesday September 01, 2021 @02:06PM (#28383505)
They can set the Fed fund rate anywhere they want... if they are willing to accept the consequences of doing so.

Anywhere they set the Fed fund rate, there will be consequences, of one kind or another. The Fed is trying for the lest-bad set of consequences, and therefore their possible policy is severely constrained.

Re:Inequality, Interest Rates, Aging, and the Role of Centra... by dragonwriter on Wednesday September 01, 2021 @03:00PM (#28384193)
> They can set the Fed fund rate anywhere they want... if they are willing to accept the consequences of doing so

Sure, the “consequences of doing so” is how they choose where they want to set them.

The upthread suggestion that the 30yr Treasury rate puts an effective cap on target rates because a yield inversion will cause a recession (and, implicitly, Treasury rates are unresponsive to the policies that are used to achieve the Fed funds target) remains false and based on mistaking a symptom with a cause of recessions.

Re:Inequality, Interest Rates, Aging, and the Role of Centra... by whimsicalism on Wednesday September 01, 2021 @02:25PM (#28383760)
Does the Fed have the ability to set interest rates at whatever it wants them to be? Yes, end of story.

Should the Fed set interest rates arbitrarily? No, but that was not what was being discussed.