James Brian Bullard (born February 28, 1961)[1] is the former chief executive officer and 12th president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, a position he held from 2008[2] until August 14, 2023.

[6] Serving 15 years as the sitting president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Bullard earned significant praise and accolades for his long-standing leadership and innovative thinking as part of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in guiding the direction of U.S. monetary policy.

For 15 years, he directed the activities of the Federal Reserve's Eighth District, which branches into several states, including an extensive portion of southern Indiana.

[7] In February 2011, Bullard was named in a Bloomberg.com article as "a bellwether person," an "indicator of where the full committee (of the FOMC) is heading.

Since 2010, Bullard has appeared numerous times as a host and commentator on CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg Television, BNN and Fox Business, among other media outlets.

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This contrasts with the more traditional approach to monetary policy projections, which assumes that the economy will converge to one single, long-run steady state.

Given that the cyclical dynamics that resulted from the recession appeared to be over, Bullard said: "It no longer made sense to submit a forecast of output growing above trend, unemployment continuing to decline, inflation rising above target, and the policy rate increasing at a fairly steep pace.

During the summer of 2010, Bullard warned that the U.S. economy was at risk of becoming "enmeshed in a Japanese-style deflationary outcome within the next several years," a view he presented in his research paper, "Seven Faces of 'The Peril.

[18] The Federal Reserve engaged in two large-scale asset purchase programs between 2009 and 2011, commonly referred to as the first and second rounds of quantitative easing, or QE1 and QE2.

"[26] However, Bullard, along with then-president of the Dallas Fed Richard Fisher, disagreed with affixing a calendar date to policy.

According to Reuters, "Bullard and Fisher do not represent the consensus view championed by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who has strongly hinted at the possibility of further action.

[29] At the June 18–19, 2013 FOMC meeting, in which the committee authorized then-Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to discuss an approximate timeline for winding down its quantitative easing program, Bullard dissented for the first time in his tenure as president of the St. Louis Fed.

In a May 2011 speech to the Money Marketeers Club in New York City, Bullard said that, "Many of the old arguments in favor of a focus on core inflation have become rotten over the years.

"[34] Also, the St. Louis Fed president has stated that inflation targeting is the modern successor to the commodity standard and is the better choice in the current environment.

[34] On Jan. 25, 2012, the FOMC set an inflation target of 2%, as measured by the annual change in the price index for personal consumption expenditures.

"[36] While Bullard agreed that the inflation target is symmetric, he dissented on the statement because he viewed the language as "insufficiently forward-looking and therefore potentially confusing for Fed communications.

The creation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 revealed divided opinions on the future of the Federal Reserve.

[39][40][41][42] Bullard took a public stand in May 2010 in support of Federal Reserve independence and against any move in Congress that would lead to the politicization of the Fed.

"[43] As a Fed supporter, Bullard has said that the Federal Reserve is "well-designed" as a central bank because it keeps monetary policy decisions away from partisan politics while remaining part of the democratic process.

He argues its benefit "could be improved communication with financial markets and the American public about how the FOMC views the key issues facing the U.S.

[50] In a Feb. 6, 2012, speech, Bullard noted that the "large output gap" view is a reason some cite for keeping nominal interest rates near zero for an indefinite period.