The Fed’s mission is to escape Jupiter

Balanced risk: People carrying shopping bags near Herald Square in the Manhattan borough of New York. Officials indicated that a further rate increase in 2016 would be appropriate – at a time when they expect the inflation rate to be 1.3, well short of the central bank’s 2 target. – Reuters

OVER the past couple decades, the Bank of Japan has tried time and again to get interest rates up from zero, only to discover that the zero bound has a peculiarly strong gravitational pull.

Although I hope the new measures it announced this week will help, its past experience holds an important lesson for central banks everywhere.