Fed started IOR payments early in 2008, George Selgin notes

Fed started IOR payments early in 2008, George Selgin notes
Fed began early IOR payments in 2008

George Selgin highlights an error in a previous statement, clarifying that the critical timing was October 2008, not 2007. He emphasizes that the Federal Reserve convinced Congress to allow it to start paying interest on reserves (IOR) well ahead of schedule in 2008, at a moment when incentivizing banks to hoard reserves was particularly unhelpful for the U.S. economy.

Selgin has previously examined how U.S. monetary policy has depended on interest paid on bank reserves since the global financial crisis, outlining the mechanisms in a recent article. He has also discussed the limited real losses for depositors following the 1934 devaluation, citing relatively low increases in the consumer price index, in an earlier commentary. These points inform his perspective on the timing and impact of the Federal Reserve’s actions in 2008.

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