In this week's episode in front of a live audience, Scott Sumner, the director of the Program on Monetary Policy at the Mercatus Center and blogger at *The Money Illusion,* returns to the show to share his thoughts on the Federal Reserve's performance from the Great Recession to the present. Scott explains how forecast targeting and price level targeting could have mitigated the economic decline in 2008 and 2009. He also shares his thoughts on how the cognitive biases of central bankers can cause them to make mistakes in evaluating the stance of monetary policy and offers some solutions to address this problem. Note: this episode was recorded as part of a special Mercatus Center event in June 2017. David's Twitter: @DavidBeckworth David's blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com Scott's Mercatus profile: https://www.mercatus.org/scott-sumner Scott's blog: www.themoneyillusion.com/ Related links: *The Midas Paradox: Financial Markets, Government Policy Shocks, and the Great Depression* by Scott Sumner https://www.amazon.com/Midas-Paradox-Financial-Government-Depression/dp/1598131508 "Nudging the Fed Toward a Rules-Based Policy Regime" by Scott Sumner https://www.mercatus.org/publication/nudging-fed-toward-rules-based-policy-regime "Demystifying the Fed" by Scott Sumner https://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/articles/2017-07-10/the-federal-reserve-needs-to-learn-from-its-monetary-mistakes "Inflation Forecasting Targeting: Implementing and Monitoring Inflation Targets" by Lars Svensson http://www.nber.org/papers/w5797

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.