Using the Taylor rule, calculate the target for the federal funds rate for July 2010, using the following information: equilibrium real federal funds rate of 2%, target inflation rate of 2%, current inflation rate of 1.2% , and an output gap of -7%.
In your calculations, the inflation gap is negative if the current inflation rate is below the target inflation rate.
How does the targeted federal funds rate calculated using the Taylor rule compare to the actual federal funds rate of 0% to 0.25%?