Stern, Gary

Q:  Some of your colleagues have said that maybe it wasn’t wise to keep rates as low or for as long as the Fed’s policy committee did earlier this decade. Do you agree?

A:  It’s hard to separate what I think now from what I thought at the time. I think with the benefit of hindsight, rates may have stayed too low for too long. But if you put yourself back in that environment, don’t forget: There was concern about we were heading toward deflation … and that it might be very difficult to execute effective policy in that environment. We look to bring as much economic science to this as you can, but you’re always making judgments, there’s no getting around it.