Students participating in the Fall 2016 New York City (NYC) Program attended a speech delivered by Stanley Fischer, vice chair of the Federal Reserve, at the Economic Club of New York (ECNY) meeting in October.
The title of the speech was “Why Are Interest Rates So Low? Causes and Implications.” The students were joined by financial services professionals Bobby Spatz ’90 and Austin Engros ’15. Richard Bernstein ’80, CEO of Richard Bernstein Advisors, sponsored the event.
During the talk, Fischer elaborated on the economic climate at the time, speaking about inflation rates, interest rates in the United States and abroad, and other economic indicators.
He included commentary on the reasons why such low interest rates are worrisome and provided a rationale for why it is not so simple for the Federal Reserve to simply raise interest rates when certain other criteria are not met.
According to Fischer, the Fed tracks economic indicators and has targets that guide the decision-making process for setting interest rates.
The speech was followed by a question-and-answer session and lunch.
The topic of this semester’s NYC Program is Global Labor Markets, led by Derek Jones, the Irma M. and Robert D. Morris Professor of Economics. This event was a chance for NYC Program participants to think broadly about global macroeconomic issues and gain some useful perspective to guide their thinking in a challenging economic landscape.
