Over My Shoulder

Federal Reserve Advisory Council: Record of meeting

January 16, 2018

I really don't suggest you read all of this unless you are a total policy wonk. There is actually something called the Federal Reserve Advisory Council, which is a group of academics, businesspeople, and other private citizens, who get together from time to time to comment on questions that the Federal Reserve entertains. Most of this record of their Nov. 30 meeting is pretty standard and boring, and you're not going to glean much new information. What I want to call your attention to is the next to the last item on the last page, which says that we are not close to a Minsky Moment yet. This has all the ring of "Subprime risk are contained." I mean, seriously, if there's no risk now of a Minsky moment, then why even mention it? That's just begging Murphy's Law to kick in big-time. Maybe it's just my warped sense of humor with regard to all matters Fed, but this little nugget did jump out at me.

Download - fac-20171130.pdf