FEd Governor Christopher Waller speaks on the ever altering slope of Philips Curve over the previous couple of years:
What have we seen within the current knowledge? Let’s take into account a Phillips curve primarily based on the value index for private consumption expenditures, which is the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) most well-liked measure. As proven in figure 1, the Phillips curve was very flat for the 20-plus years earlier than the pandemic, in keeping with the story that the Federal Reserve was credible at maintaining inflation low.3
Then within the spring of 2021, after greater than a decade of hibernation, inflation got here roaring again to life. Because the financial system recovered from the pandemic shutdowns, inflation elevated every month of the 12 months and was operating at greater than double the Fed’s 2 p.c goal all through the latter half of 2021. In the meantime, unemployment fell fairly quickly in 2021, from 6.3 p.c initially of the 12 months to three.9 p.c in December, which was shocking given the lengthy, gradual recoveries after current recessions. Based mostly on the flatness of the Phillips curve in current a long time, some commentators argued that unemployment must rise dramatically to carry inflation again right down to 2 p.c. Others argued that, primarily based on evaluation of the Beveridge curve, inflation may very well be introduced down with out a important rise in unemployment, though this conjecture was not with out controversy.4
However contemplating the information for 2021, as proven in figure 2, the Phillips curve out of the blue regarded comparatively steep. That’s, the labor market turned extraordinarily tight because the U.S. financial system emerged from pandemic lockdowns. Figure 3 reveals that since January 2022, the Phillips curve is actually vertical: The unemployment charge has hovered round 3.6 p.c, and inflation has diversified from 7 p.c (in June) to five.3 p.c (in December).
The current expertise raises the query: What occurred to the Phillips curve that it’s performing so in another way now than within the pre-pandemic interval?
Learn the speech for particulars.