Being a U.S. Federal Reserve governor is an impressive job, but sometimes you might wish for another, simpler, task—like working for the European Central Bank (ECB).
At least to Charles Plosser, the former president of the Philadelphia Fed, it’s that single mandate that’s attractive. While the U.S. central bank must aim to achieve both maximum employment and stable prices, its euro zone counterpart need only worry about the latter.
“I am jealous of the ECB’s mandate,” Plosser told CNBC on Monday. “I would rather see the U.S. have a more narrow mandate that looked like the ECB’s mandate, actually. I think that would make the task easier and make monetary policy more effective doing what monetary policy is actually capable of doing, which is achieving price stability.”
