these assessments of maximum employment are necessarily uncertain and subject to revision. according to the federal reserve act, the employment objective is on an equal footing with the inflation objective. as a practical matter, our current strategy shares many elements with the policy framework known in the research literature as “ flexible inflation targeting. ” 15 however, the fed ’ s mandate is much more explicit about the role of employment than those of most flexible inflation - targeting central banks, and our statement reflects this by stating that when the two sides of the mandate are in conflict, neither one takes precedent over the other. we believe this transparency about the balanced approach the fomc takes has served us well over the past decade when high unemployment called for extraordinary policies that entailed some risk of inflation. the review of our current framework will be wide ranging, and we will not prejudge where it will take us, but events of the past decade highlight three broad questions. three questions the first question is, “ can the federal reserve best meet its statutory objectives with its existing monetary policy strategy, or should it consider strategies that aim to reverse past misses of the inflation objective? ” under our current approach as well as that of many central banks around the world, the persistent shortfalls of inflation from 2 percent that many advanced economies have experienced over most of the past decade are treated as “ bygones. ” this means that for a discussion of this terminology and references, see english, lopez - salido, and tetlow ( 2015 ) and clinton and others ( 2015 ). - 7policy today is not adjusted to offset past inflation shortfalls with future overshoots of the inflation target ( nor do persistent overshoots of inflation trigger policies that aim to undershoot the inflation target ). central banks are generally believed to have effective tools for preventing persistent inflation overshoots, but the effective lower bound on interest rates makes persistent undershoots more likely. persistent inflation shortfalls carry the risk that longer - term inflation expectations become poorly anchored or become anchored below the stated inflation goal. 16 in part because of that concern, some economists have advocated “ makeup ” strategies under which policymakers seek to undo, in part or in whole, past inflation deviations from target. such strategies include targeting average inflation over a multiyear period and price - level targeting, in which policymakers seek to stabilize the price level around a constant growth path. 17 these strategies could be implemented either permanently or as a temporary response to extraordinary circumstances.

“ community listening session ” hosted by the dallas fed in february. several more fed listens events will follow in may. in addition, we are holding a system research conference on june 4 - 5, 2019, at the federal reserve bank of chicago, with speakers and panelists from outside the fed. the program includes overviews by academic experts of themes that are central to the review : the fomc ’ s monetary policy since the financial crisis, assessments of the maximum sustainable level of employment, alternative policy frameworks and strategies to achieve the dual mandate, policy tools, global considerations, financial stability considerations, and central bank communications. two sessions will feature panels of community leaders who will share their perspectives on the labor market and the effects of interest rates on their constituencies. information about the review and the events associated with it are available on the board ’ s website at https : / / www. federalreserve. gov / monetarypolicy / review - of - monetary - policy - strategy - tools - andcommunications. htm. - 12 we expect to release summaries of the fed listens events and to livestream the chicago conference. building on the perspectives we hear and on staff analysis, the fomc will conduct its own assessment of its monetary policy framework, beginning around the middle of the year. we will share our conclusions with the public in the first half 2020. concluding thoughts the economy is constantly evolving, bringing with it new policy challenges. so it makes sense for us to remain open minded as we assess current practices and consider ideas that could potentially enhance our ability to deliver on the goals the congress has assigned us. for this reason, my colleagues and i do not want to preempt or to predict our ultimate finding. what i can say is that any refinements or more material changes to our framework that we might make will be aimed solely at enhancing our ability to achieve and sustain our dual - mandate objectives in the world we live in today. - 13 references aaronson, stephanie r., mary c. daly, william wascher, and david w. wilcox ( 2019 ). “ okun revisited : who benefits most from a strong economy? ” paper presented at the brookings papers on economic activity conference, held at the brookings institution, washington, march 7 - 8, https : / / www. brookings. edu / wpcontent / uploads / 2019 / 03 / okun - revisited - who -