According to articles in both the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, the Fed may no longer view the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) as a useful tool for guiding monetary policy. The problem seems to be that they don’t know where it is and what it means.

This is certainly good news for those of us who have been making this argument for some time. It was very decent of Bernanke and Co. to keep their doubts on the NAIRU doctrine quiet throughout the celebrations of Milton Friedman’s life and work.

–Dean Baker

Dean Baker is senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He is the author of several books, including Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer. Read more about Dean.