Passed over for the nomination to chair the Federal Reserve, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers is now criticizing its decisions from a platform at the Washington Post. He writes:
Why is the Fed making these mistakes if indeed they are mistakes? It is not because its leaders are not thoughtful or open minded or concerned with growth and employment. Rather I suspect it is because of an excessive commitment to existing models and modes of thought
If Mr. Summers doesn't agree with the decisions of the Fed led by Janet Yellen and Stanley Fischer, it is a good reminder that economic policymaking of the sort the Fed is engaged in is as much an art as it is a science, and that humility and skepticism are in order all around.