World Perspectives

More Nuanced Look at Labor from the Federal Reserve

It is almost as if the Fed is looking for excuses to continue easy money policies now that inflation is in the range it targeted and employment news would otherwise indicate a solid recovery.

New Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen is a labor economist by training. Her job is to preside over the Federal Reserve, which has a dual mandate as put forth in the 1977 Federal Reserve Act: to maintain maximum employment and stable prices. Under previous Chairman Ben Bernanke, the Fed issued a statement on meeting those goals. As for inflation, it was rather straightforward and simple with the goal of 2 percent inflation annually over the long run. Employment was a little more complex. The Fed's 2012 statement explained that the maximum level...

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From WPI Consulting

Illuminating the value of technical research

On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.

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