Fed’s rebel defends autonomy

WASHINGTON: To understand the biggest risk facing the Federal Reserve’s future, consider an otherwise mundane photograph in Jeffrey Lacker’s office overlooking a turbulent stretch of Virginia’s James River.

The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond stands with his predecessors Robert Black and J. Alfred Broaddus Jr in front of a relief of Carter Glass, the Virginia lawmaker who co-wrote the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Together with their research teams, they created a culture over 44 years that held price stability as first among equals of the central bank’s twin goals, which also includes maximum employment.