Among the Fed’s most important values is the belief that policymaking should be based on dispassionate, objective, and fact-based analysis. The ideal we seek is a combination of the researcher’s intellectual rigor and the ability of the effective policymaker to navigate the messiness of the real world, a world that includes complex institutions and markets, imperfect and incomplete data, and often-unpredictable human behavior.
Of course, policy analysis and implementation of the highest quality do not just happen. They require professionalism and a commitment to public service as exemplified by the generations of staff members who have served this institution so well.