The Secular Stagnation Bug is Spreading at the Fed

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Is there something seriously wrong with the economy?

It’s a scary prospect, and a concern that’s gotten louder and louder over the past year. In economic circles, it goes by the alliterative name of “secular stagnation.” And it’s a phrase that Fed watchers are likely to hear more and more in the months ahead.

Recent comments by the vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, Stanley Fischer, indicate questions within the central bank about whether the slow growth that has followed the recent recession could reflect, or at least could potentially morph into, longer-term issues within the economy. And while Fischer avoided the phrase “secular stagnation” in his Monday speech, Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota is planning to host a November symposium that directly addresses the issue of secular stagnation by name, CNBC has learned.

Actually, it is worse than Rosenberg reports. The FOMC projections that are available show a pronounced downward trend in the “longer run” forecast of the federal funds rate. This projection is the expected average value of the federal funds rate over the long run. In short, its the expected long-run netural federal funds rate. Its declining trend can be seen in the figure below which shows the average of each member’s FOMC “longer-run”forecast for each meeting where projections are available:

I have a hard time believing the fundamentals warrant this downward revision in the long-run neutral interest rate. Where is the optimism? Clearly, the FOMC members need to drink an elixir of readings by Joel Mokyr, Erik Brynjfolsson and Andrea McAfee, and Marc Andreessen to beef up their technology optimism. And then they could follow it up with a Bill McBride treat of demographic optimism. And to wash it all down, they should finish with a John Cochrane cocktail of secular stagnation skepticism.