Suppose that the economy is thought to be 2% above potential ( that is, output gap is 2%) when potential output grows 4% per year. Suppose also that the Fed is following the Taylor rule, with an inflation rate of 2% over the past year. The federal funds rate is currently 3%. the equilibrium real federal funds rate is 3%, and the weights on the output gap and inflation gap are 0.5 each.
The inflation target is 1%.
A: Is the Federal funds rate currently too high or too low? by how much? and how did you come up wth this
B: Suppose that a year has gone by, output is now just 1% above potential, and the inflation rate 1.5% over the year. What Federal funds rate should the Fed now set (assuming that the inflation target does not change)?