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윌리엄 풀 총재, '에너지가격과 미국 경기주기" 연설(원문)

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※ 번역할 언어 선택

Energy Prices and the U.S. Business Cycle

William Poole*
President, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Global Interdependence Center (GIC) Abroad in Chile Conference
American Chamber of Commerce in Chile Breakfast
Santiago, Chile
March 2, 2007

*I appreciate comments provided by my colleagues at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Edward Nelson, assistant vice president, provided special assistance. I take full responsibility for errors. The views expressed are mine and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Federal Reserve System.

Energy Prices and the U.S. Business Cycle

A staple of the macroeconomics literature is that energy price shocks have been an important contributor to U.S. recessions. The situation is clearly more complicated than the common macro textbook exercise of using standard diagrams to work out the effects of an energy shock. Recent experience with a near tripling of oil prices from mid 2003 to mid 2006 without a recession suggests the need to review the conventional wisdom. One of my messages will be that the conventional wisdom fails to consider the fact that previous oil price shocks occurred when the U.S. economy was already suffering from substantial inflation pressures, whereas the recent run-up of oil prices has occurred in an economy with substantial overall price stability and entrenched, low inflation expectations.

Before I dig into the issue of the extent of causality between oil price shocks and recessions, I want to emphasize that the views I express here are mine and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Federal Reserve System. I thank my colleagues at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis for their comments; Ed Nelson, asistant vice president, provided special assistance. However, I retain full responsibility for errors.
The Debate

The historical record since 1970 provides some perspective on the relationship between oil prices and the business cycle. The figure (at end of text) plots the U.S. benchmark oil price (the West Texas intermediate spot price), both in nominal terms (i.e., current U.S. dollars) and real terms (i.e., deflated by the CPI so as to be in constant 1982-84 dollars) since 1970. Shaded regions denote U.S. recessions, as designated by the National Bureau of Economic Research. These include the recession of 1973-75, associated with the oil price shock of 1973-74, the recessions of 1980 and 1981-82, preceded by the second oil shock in 1979, and the recession of 1990-91, also associated with a large, but more transitory, oil price increase of about 75 percent in 1990-91. There are also more drawn-out but steep oil increases in 1999-2000 and 2003-2006. The presence of the recession bars in the graph brings out what Hamilton and Herrera (2004, p. 265) observe is “a correlation between increases in oil prices and subsequent economic downturns.” In particular, recessions began in the United States within a year of the 1973, 1979 and 1990 oil price increases.

There has been much debate on how much of this link between recessions and prior oil price increases should be attributed to the powerful effect of oil shocks on the economy, and how much reflects a third factor—more restrictive monetary policy imposed at roughly the same time as the oil shocks. But I would draw attention to another aspect of the relationship between the business cycle and oil prices highlighted by the figure. The United States has never had an energy price spike occur in the middle of a recession, or immediately following a recession when unemployment is still relatively high. This fact suggests two properties of large oil price increases that are useful to keep in mind. First, very sharp increases in oil prices that we have observed historically, while undoubtedly reflecting exogenous supply disruptions to some degree, also reflect the strength of the economy at the time. Secondly, the casual association often made, based on the 1970s experience, between oil price increases and high inflation, is largely misguided because the large oil price increases of the 1970s occurred against the background of cyclical expansions that had gone too far.

The 1973 and 1979 episodes did not feature inflationary spirals triggered by the oil shocks. Instead, they are characterized by preexisting, general inflationary pressures that an alternative monetary policy could have avoided. The first oil shock in 1973 occurred against a background of clear economic overheating in the United States. U.S. monetary policy was very expansionary in 1971 and 1972, leading to excessive growth of aggregate demand that, even in the presence of price controls, spilled over into rising inflation in 1973. By October 1973—that is, the month of the first oil shock, but largely before its impact could be felt in the CPI—inflation had reached 8.1 percent on a 12-month basis, a sharp rise from the 3.2 percent rate over the 12 months ending in October 1972. Annual CPI inflation subsequently rose to 11.8 percent in October 1974 and peaked at 12.2 percent in November 1974.

Similarly, in the wake of several years of expanding demand, inflation rose throughout most of 1977 and 1978, well before the second oil shock, and the 12-month rate stood at 9.3 percent in January 1979, 2.5 percentage points above its value of January 1978. Inflation subsequently peaked at 14.6 percent in March 1980. Even the 1990 oil price spike occurred late in a long economic expansion, with annual inflation having stood above 4 percent since mid-1988. In July 1990, the 12-month CPI inflation rate was 4.8 percent, too high to correspond to price stability and not far below the July 1989 value of 5.1 percent. Following the oil shock that began in August 1990, inflation peaked at 6.4 percent in October 1990.

The strength of the economy at the time of the three oil shocks is also reflected in the unemployment rate. In October 1973, the seasonally adjusted U.S. unemployment rate stood at 4.6 percent, its lowest rate since early 1970; in January 1979 it was 5.9 percent, close to its trough for the late 1970s expansion; and in July 1990, unemployment was 5.5 percent, above its March 1989 low of 5.0 percent, but still lower than its value in any month in the years 1975-1987.

This emphasis on the link between the state of the business cycle and the strength of oil prices may seem surprising. Many of the well-known spikes in the oil price are associated with exogenous events on the supply side: for example, OPEC’s quadrupling of the oil price in late 1973 in the wake of the Middle East war; OPEC’s doubling of the oil price in 1979 following the revolution in Iran; and Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. These events were certainly major supply-side disruptions. But even a cartel like OPEC that administers the price of its product cannot ignore market conditions. In particular, a reason why OPEC was able to sustain the very large 1973 oil price increase for so long was because world demand for oil was underpinned by rapid expansion of aggregate demand in key markets in Europe, Japan and the United States. Indeed, some analysts of the 1973 oil shock have cast doubt on whether the oil price increase of 1973 can be considered an exogenous event at all; Barsky and Kilian (2001) argue that it was a delayed response to long-term demand developments in the oil market, combined with a response to contemporaneous buoyant world demand conditions.(1) We do not have to go this far, however, to recognize that there was a significant endogenous component to the oil price increases in 1973 and 1979 due to demand factors, reflecting an overheating of the U.S. economy which coincided with boom conditions in other advanced economies.
Oil Prices and Inflation

Members of the FOMC, as well as monetary policy makers in Europe and the United Kingdom, have spoken about oil prices and inflation on many occasions in recent years. Despite differences in emphasis, a clear proposition runs through these discussions: Irrespective of the behavior of oil prices, we can be confident that monetary policy oriented to price stability will deliver control over inflation over the medium term. It is worth spelling out this proposition in some detail.

The reason why price stability is not contingent on oil price behavior is that inflation is a sustained rise in the general level of prices. The price of oil enters heavily into a particular category of consumer prices—gasoline prices—and indirectly into the prices of many other products. It is possible for the price of energy-intensive goods to change relative to a general index of prices; in fact, such relative-price movements are part of the everyday workings of a market economy. And, over periods of, say, a year or more it is possible for monetary policy to secure low inflation—which means low growth rates in indexes of overall prices—even when energy price inflation is high. Over time, the general level of prices responds to the supply-demand imbalance in the economy: that is, to longer-term movement in total spending in the economy relative to long-run supply potential. Monetary policy actions affect the total volume of spending, and so can influence the balance between aggregate demand and supply. By keeping aggregate demand in balance with aggregate supply, monetary policy can create conditions for general price stability, even if certain components in the price index are persistently increasing.

Two aspects of this picture are worth emphasizing. First, the overall price level is susceptible to influence by monetary policy even if the price of oil, or other commodities, is being driven by exogenous supply events. That is why Milton Friedman could advance his proposition that “inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon” even though he acknowledged that the 1973 OPEC shock had produced a “drastic alteration in the conditions of supply of crude oil.”(2) The general trend of prices is distinct from the behavior of a single price in the index or subset of the index. Inflation is always an endogenous variable in the medium term, whatever exogenous shocks are affecting its components in the short term.

Secondly, monetary policymakers often pay attention to “core” measures of prices that exclude energy and food prices. This focus does not, however, mean that policymakers’ concept of price stability refers only to a basket of goods that excludes energy-intensive items. The overall cost of living is what matters for welfare, so stability over time in indexes that include energy is desirable. But because the price of gasoline is volatile, it is often desirable to “see through” very short-term movements in consumer prices, and work out what is happening to the underlying trend of prices. Looking at core measures of inflation can be useful for this purpose. Indeed core and aggregate inflation clearly move together over longer periods. That said, during periods of sustained increases in relative energy prices, general price stability requires that price indexes that exclude energy will need to grow more slowly than the aggregate price index; over this period, achievement of inflation at a desirable level means that core inflation, on average, proceeds below the overall level of inflation.

Thirdly, an oil price increase may reduce aggregate supply and policymakers also need to take this fact into account in keeping demand and supply in balance. This issue is most prominent when the oil price change is permanent and when the economy’s technology is very energy-intensive on average. The 1973 oil shock, for example, was long-lasting and took place at a time when U.S. production was very energy-inefficient. Potential output thus fell substantially. The economy was already overheated by 1973; so, some reining in of spending by monetary policy was justified even before the oil shock; but once the oil shock took place, monetary policy needed to tighten, just to keep supply and demand from going further into imbalance. That is, it was necessary to let actual output fall with the decline in potential output. From this perspective, Hamilton and Herrera (2004) are not necessarily posing the right question when they ask how much of a monetary policy loosening would have been required to avoid a recession after the 1973 oil shock. The supply shock alone justified a monetary policy tightening on stabilization grounds.

In recent years, on the other hand, the circumstances of the 1973 oil shock have not been repeated. The economy has not been overheated; the economy is more energy-efficient so the impact on supply of oil shocks has been moderated; and the more severe spikes in the oil price such as in summer 2006 have been recognized as transitory in nature. In these circumstances, monetary policy is in a much better position to support aggregate demand in the face of oil shocks without endangering medium-term price stability. This state of affairs has been emphasized by the Federal Reserve Chairman in his discussion of the effect of oil shocks (Bernanke, 2006).

In summary, maintenance of low inflation over a period of several years or more is achievable whatever happens to oil prices. The same was true in the 1970s, and the fact that inflation was high on average reflected over-expansionary monetary policy, not the oil shocks.
Recent Oil Price Increases

The oil price increase in 2003-2006 is in line with the earlier pattern that surges in oil prices occur during economic expansions. Indeed, recent increases are more clearly a demand phenomenon than the previous increases. Energy prices in recent years have been driven by demand rather than supply. The source of this demand is unusual compared to the past, with a smaller contribution of U.S. demand and a much larger contribution of China. China’s net imports of oil were projected to be 2.3 percent of its GDP in 2006 compared to 0.9 percent in 2002 (IMF, 2006, p. 31). A longer-term perspective is given by the fact that China’s share of world demand for oil is estimated to have risen from 3.5 percent in 1990 to around 8.2 percent in 2006 (Weber, 2006). This increase reflects the rapid growth and industrialization of China in the past fifteen years, as well as the use of production technology that is, on average, energy-inefficient compared to the United States.
Conclusions

Without question, energy supply shocks are disruptive, but they need not create recessions. Indeed, there is a more general lesson from experience with oil price shocks. Monetary policy should not allow an economy to operate at the edge of a cliff. When balanced precariously at the edge of a cliff, even a minor disturbance, oil or otherwise, may be sufficient to push the economy over the edge. Although an outside shock may be the catalyst, or trigger, that creates undue inflation pressures, the fundamental problem is not the catalyst but the powerful and risky brew of an overheated economy. To use another analogy, if someone opens gas jets and fills a house with gas, do we blame the explosion on the person who lights the match or the person who opened the jets? I know where I want to place the blame.


Footnotes

1. See Hamilton (2003, pp. 388-89) for a rebuttal of Barsky and Kilian’s (2001) position that the 1973-74 oil price increase did not incorporate a major exogenous supply shift.

2. Friedman and Schwartz (1982, p. 414).


References

Barsky, Robert B., and Lutz Kilian (2001). “Do We Really Know That Oil Caused the Great Stagflation? A Monetary Alternative,” NBER Macroeconomics Annual, Vol. 16(1), 137-183.

Bernanke, Ben S. (2006). “Energy and the Economy.” Remarks before the Economic Club of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, June 15.

Friedman, Milton, and Anna J. Schwartz (1982). Monetary Trends in the United States and the United Kingdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Hamilton, James D. (2003). “What Is an Oil Shock?,” Journal of Econometrics, Vol. 113(2), 363-398.

Hamilton, James D., and Ana Maria Herrera (2004). “Oil Shocks and Aggregate Macroeconomic Behavior: The Role of Monetary Policy,” Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Vol. 36(2), 265-286.

International Monetary Fund (2006). People’s Republic of China—Article IV Consultation: Staff Report. Washington, D.C.

Weber, Axel A. (2006). “Oil Price Shocks and Monetary Policy in the Euro Area.” Whitaker Lecture by President of the Deutsche Bundesbank.


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[변상문의 화랑담배] 제2회 광복군 변상문의 '화랑담배'는 6·25전쟁 이야기이다. 6·25전쟁 때 희생된 모든 분에게 감사드리고, 그 위대한 희생을 기리기 위해 제목을 '화랑담배'로 정했다.  1940년 9월 17일 중국 중경 가릉호텔에서 성대한 행사가 열렸다. 대한민국 임시정부 광복군 창설식이었다. 미국 한인 동포들이 보내온 돈 4만원으로 조직한 군대였다. 지금 돈으로 환산하면 20억 원 정도 된다. 총사령관 이청천 장군, 참모장 이범석 장군, 제1지대장 이준식, 제2지대장 고운기, 제3지대장 김학규, 제5지대장에 나월환을 임명했다. 지대장은 지금의 사단장에 해당한다. 모두 봉오동 전투, 청산리 전투를 비롯하여 남북 만주에서 전개된 항일무장투쟁에 직접 참여하여 활동한 독립군 출신이었다. 한국광복군 훈련반 제1기 졸업사진. [사진= 독립기념관] 임시정부 주석 김구는 포고문을 통해 "국내외 동포들에게 알립니다. 1940년 9월 17일부로 대한민국 광복군을 창설하였습니다. 광복군은 1907년 8월 1일 일제가 대한제국 군대를 해산한 날이 바로 광복군 창설일임을 선언합니다. 광복군은 구 한국군의 후신으로 33년간에 걸친 의병과 독립군의 항일무장투쟁을 계승한 전통 무장 조직입니다"라고 했다. 대한제국 국군-의병-독립군의 군맥(軍脈)과 군혼(軍魂)을 분명하게 잇고 있음을 천명한 것이다. 부대 편성은 소대, 중대, 대대, 연대, 여단, 사단 6단으로 편성하였다. 총 3개 사단을 조직할 계획이었다. 그러나 인원이 적은 상황에서 우선 지대를 만들고, 각 지대를 구대와 분대로 연계한 전투부대를 구성했다. 임시정부에서 1940년 9월 19일 중국 국민당 정부에 통보한 '한국광복군 총사령부 직원 명단'에 의하면, 부대 규모가 총사령부와 4개 단위부대, 여기에다 조선혁명군 부대까지 포함하여 5000여 명이었다. 임시정부에서는 1941년 12월 연합국의 일원으로 일본에 선전포고했다. 1942년에는 미국 측에 "미국이 제주도를 해방 시켜 주면, 중경에 있는 임시정부를 제주도로 옮긴 후, 광복군이 미군과 함께 한반도 상륙작전을 전개하겠다."라고 제안하였다. 이 제안은 실제로 미국 OSS 부대(지금의 CIA)와 1945년 4월부터 8월까지 강도 높은 국내 진공 작전을 준비했다. 주요 훈련은 3개월 기간에 고공낙하, 암살법(권총에 특수장치를 하여 소리 없이 암살하는 방법), 통신(암호의 작성 및 해독법, 무전기 조작 및 수리), 교란 행동, 정보수집, 폭파 등 이었다. 일과는 07:00∼12:00 오전 훈련, 13:00∼18:00 오후 훈련, 19:00∼22:00 야간 훈련이었다. 주요 임무는 대한민국으로 낙하산과 잠수함으로 침투하여 미 공군 공습에 필요한 지형 등의 정보를 제공하고 일본군 군사시설 탐지 및 파괴 지하 유격대를 조직하여 연합군 상륙작전 시 제2선에서 연결하는 작전이었다. 마침내 1945년 8월 7일 모든 훈련을 마치고 국내진공작전 출정식을 개최했다. 개시일은 8월 10일이었다. 출정식 때 장준하 경기도 공작 반장은 "나는 조국광복을 위해 죽음을 선택했습니다. 내가 나의 죽음을 지불하면, 내 능력껏 그 대가가 조국을 위해서 결제될 것입니다. 나의 각오는 한 장의 정수표입니다. 발생인은 장준하, 결제인은 조국입니다"라는 유서까지 작성했다. / 변상문 국방국악문화진흥회 이사장 2025-09-08 08:00
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'포스트 이시바' 누구?...고이즈미·다카이치 선두 [서울=뉴스핌] 오영상 기자 = 이시바 시게루 일본 총리가 자민당 총재직 사임을 공식화하면서, 일본 정국의 관심은 차기 자민당 총재 선거로 쏠리고 있다. 집권당 총재가 곧 총리직을 맡는 일본 정치 구조상 이번 총재 선거는 사실상 다음 총리를 뽑는 절차다. 자민당은 조만간 새로운 총재 선거 일정을 확정할 예정이다. 이번 선거에서는 지난 2024년 9월 총재 선거에서 이시바 총리와 경합했던 주요 인사들이 다시 출마할 가능성이 높다. 고이즈미 신지로 농림수산상, 다카이치 사나에 전 경제안보담당상, 하야시 요시마사 관방장관, 모테기 도시미쓰 전 간사장, 고바야시 다카유키 전 경제안보담당상 등이 후보군으로 거론된다. 정국 운영이 소수 여당이라는 제약 속에서 이루어지는 만큼, 차기 총재가 야당과 어떻게 연대할지, 어떤 연립 구도를 짤지가 최대 쟁점으로 꼽힌다. '포스트 이시바' 후보로 꼽히고 있는 고이즈미 신지로 일본 농림수산상 [사진=로이터 뉴스핌] ◆ 고이즈미·다카이치 선두권 현재 여론조사에서는 고이즈미 농림수산상과 다카이치 전 경제안보상이 선두권을 형성하고 있다. 니혼게이자이신문 지난달 29~31일 실시한 여론조사에 따르면 차기 총리에 적합한 인물로 다카이치가 23%, 고이즈미가 22%를 기록했다. 나란히 1, 2위다. 자민당 지지층으로 한정하면 고이즈미가 32%로, 다카이치(17%)를 크게 앞서는 것으로 나타났다. 다카이치는 2024년 총재 선거에서 1차 투표에서 1위를 차지했으나 결선에서 이시바에게 역전패했다. 고이즈미 역시 의원 표에서 선두에 올랐지만 당원 표에서 밀리며 결선에 오르지 못했다. 두 사람 모두 당내 기반과 대중적 인지도를 겸비해 차기 선거에서도 가장 주목받는 주자들이다. 고이즈미 농림수산상은 1981년생(44세)으로 고이즈미 준이치로 전 총리의 차남이다. 2009년 중의원 첫 당선 이후 줄곧 '포스트 아베', '차세대 리더'로 주목받았다. 환경상, 농림수산상을 거쳤으며 개혁 성향과 젊은 이미지로 지지층을 넓혔다. 2024년 총선에서 당 선거대책위원장을 맡았으나 참패 책임을 지고 물러났다. 이후 농림수산상으로 복귀해 쌀 유통 개혁 등 농정 개혁에 매진했다. 대중적 인지도와 '고이즈미 브랜드'라는 정치 자산이 최대 강점으로 꼽힌다. 다카이치 전 경제안보상은 1961년생(64세)으로 보수 강경파로 분류되는 여성 정치인이다. 2021년 총재 선거에 첫 도전해 아베 신조 전 총리의 전폭적 지원을 받으며 3위를 기록했다. 2024년 총재 선거 1차 투표에서 최다 득표(의원 72표, 당원 109표)를 얻었으나 결선에서 이시바 총리에게 역전 당했다. 유일한 여성 후보로서 '보수의 아이콘' 이미지를 갖고 있으며, 아베 전 총리와 가까웠던 의원 그룹이 주된 지지 기반이다. 이시바 정권에서 당직 제안을 거절하며 독자 노선을 유지해 왔다. '포스트 이시바' 후보로 꼽히는 다카이치 사나에 전 일본 경제안보담당상 [사진=로이터 뉴스핌] ◆ 하야시·모테기 등 잠룡도 주목 고이즈미와 다카이치 두 선두 주자 외에 잠룡들의 행보도 주목된다. 하야시 요시마사 관방장관은 옛 기시다파 일부의 지지를 받고 있으며, 이시바 정권의 2인자로서 존재감을 키워왔다. 모테기 도시미쓰 전 간사장은 당내 경험과 풍부한 인맥을 강점으로 삼고, 아소 다로 전 부총리와 교류를 통해 지지 기반을 다지고 있다. 고바야시 다카유키 전 경제안보담당상은 5선 의원으로, 동기 의원들과 옛 니카이파의 지원을 받으며 출마 가능성을 열어두고 있다. ◆ 총재 선거 이후에도 정국 '안갯속' 자민당 총재 선거는 국회의원 표와 당원·당우 표를 합산하는 방식이 원칙이지만, 긴급 시에는 국회의원과 지방 지부 대표만 투표하는 '양원 의원 총회' 방식으로 대체될 수 있다. 이 경우 의원 표의 비중이 커져 파벌 역학이 중요해진다. 차기 총재가 선출되더라도 곧바로 정권 안정으로 이어진다는 보장은 없다. 일본 헌법상 총리는 국회에서 지명되는데, 자민·공명 양당은 현재 중의원과 참의원 모두에서 과반을 잃은 상태다. 따라서 야당이 단일 후보를 세워 결집할 경우, 자민당 총재가 총리로 지명되지 못할 가능성도 배제할 수 없다. 자민당 총재가 총리에 오르더라도, 예산안·세제 개혁 법안 등 국정 운영은 야당 협조 없이는 불가능하다. 이런 이유로 차기 총재는 곧바로 '연립 확대'나 '정책 연대'를 추진할 수밖에 없고, 총재 선거 과정에서도 어떤 야당과 손을 잡을지가 핵심 화두가 된다. 결국 이번 자민당 총재 선거는 단순히 차기 지도자를 뽑는 절차를 넘어, 일본 정치가 다당제 속에서 어떤 연립 구도를 구축할지 시험대가 되는 분기점으로 평가된다. goldendog@newspim.com 2025-09-08 09:26
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