Has the ‘Great Moderation’ Returned, and Is That a Good Thing?

Have we returned to the Great Moderation?

That was the question posed by Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist for Capital Economics, in a note out Wednesday. The “Great Moderation” is the name often given to the period from the mid-1980s to 2007, when the Federal Reserve kept inflation and economic growth relatively stable… until it all collapsed in spectacular fashion in the global financial crisis of 2008.