Stanley Fischer had a long and distinguished career as an academic economist at MIT, and was Vice President, Development Economics and Chief Economist at the World Bank, before becoming First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund in 1994. He is now President of Citigroup...

The main issue discussed in the supply shock literature that followed the oil and food price shocks of the seventies was whether to accommodate. The supply shock reduces the equilibrium level of output, and monetary policy can not affect that. But in the seventies supply shocks were also...