Recent Monetary Policy in the U.S.: Risk Management of Asset Bubbles

Recently Chairman Greenspan (2003 and 2004) has discussed a risk management approach to the implementation of monetary policy. This paper explores the economic environment of the 1990s and the policy dilemmas the Fed faced given the stock boom from the mid to late 1990s to after the bust in 2000-2001. Drawing on Greenspan's comments about conducting monetary policy in the real world of risk and uncertainty, the paper assesses why US monetary policy was neutral with respect to the stock market boom.