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This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Saturday, December 7th, 2019.

I'm Caleb Brown.

What is the constitutional role of the Federal Reserve?

The economist Judy Shelton argues it's pretty clear.

Money she says is a critical measure so people can plan their lives.

And stability in that measure is key.

We spoke at the Cato Institute's monetary conference last month.

When you evaluate the performance of a Federal Reserve,

what are you, what are your metrics for deciding whether or not they've done a good job?

Well, I feel that the most important role for the Federal Reserve is to try to live up to what you might call the only

constitutionally assigned value. I think Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution gives

Congress the right to regulate the value of the money and a foreign coin.

And that is expressed in the same sentence that they also give Congress the right to define

weights and measures.

So fundamentally, money is meant to be a measure.

...