
Social Security for wealthy retirees promotes greater bequests, more inequality
An analysis by Rochester economist Kegon Tan shows that increases and decreases in payments for the affluent affect what they leave behind, not what they spend.

Narayana Kocherlakota to Fed: Stop banks from paying dividends
In advance of this week’s Fed meeting, Kocherlakota calls on the Fed to prohibit banks from paying dividends to shareholders. “Banks should be keeping as much capital as they can,” he says.

Rochester economist: Without stronger leadership, ‘disaster’ lies ahead
Without a coordinated system of testing, tracing, and quarantining for COVID-19, economic activity cannot resume—and the downturn will be steeper and longer than any since before World War II, says Rochester economist Narayana Kocherlakota.

Rochester economist: ‘Congress will have to do more’ to fight recession
The $2 trillion stimulus plan working its way through Congress likely won’t be adequate to save the US economy from recession in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, says University of Rochester economist Narayana Kocherlakota.

Rochester economist expects the Fed to stay the course
At the committee’s first meeting of 2020, Rochester professor Narayana Kocherlakota expects the Federal Open Market Committee to hold the course on interest rates, as issues from trade wars to impeachment loom.

‘Absurd’ for Fed to leave its policy framework unchanged
Rochester professor of economics Narayana Kocherlakota expects to be disappointed this week, as the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee has signaled that it will make no changes to an eight-year-old policy statement for meeting inflation and unemployment goals.

The Great Recession: The downturn that wouldn’t end
The Great Recession officially lasted through June 2009, with unemployment levels peaking in October of that year. And while unemployment is now the lowest it’s been in the last 50 years, Rochester experts say the recession is still very much with us.

Rochester economist: Low inflation rates hurt the Fed’s credibility
“There’s a lot of evidence that in the last eight years or so the Fed has lost control,” says Narayana Kocherlakota, the Lionel W. McKenzie Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester.

Fed meeting likely to bring rate cut and dissent, says Rochester economist
President Donald Trump is calling on the Federal Reserve to zero out interest rates—or adopt a negative rate—at its meeting this week. But Narayana Kocherlakota says that won’t happen.

Jumpy stock market hides economy’s positives
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been on a wild ride in August, but University of Rochester economist Narayana Kocherlakota thinks that talk of a possible recession in the US is premature.