Who Loves Ya, Baby? The Federal Reserve
The #Fedvalentines meme, started by economist Justin Wolfers, injected some fun into an otherwise leaden week.
Today, the language of the Federal Reserve was the language of love.
The fields of finance and economics, while often interesting to their own natives, can seem the enemy of lightness and happiness to everyone else – a leaden, desolate landscape of people who like to read and argue about really dense term papers on impenetrable subjects.
So it’s particularly nice when the financial world – particularly the bow-tie-plagued universe of economists – lets their inner wit come out and play. That’s what happened today when the economist Justin Wolfers started a new Twitter craze combining his favorite field of study with an event impending on the calendar: Yes, Fed Valentines.
There have been ample roundups of the cheeky contributions, from The New York Times, Freakonomics, The Wall Street Journal and…the Wall Street Journal some more.
But one important group of Fed Valentine tweeters have been largely unacknowledged: The best #FedValentines tweets were from various branches of the Federal Reserve itself. The San Francisco Fed, Philadelphia Fed and Atlanta Fed all got in on the action. These were brilliantly entertaining to everyone else not because they were funnier – though they’re pretty good – but because they’re straight from the source. (Or at least, a staffer with access to the Twitter account.)
Far from their usual wonky, dignified tweets, the various Fed branches let loose, to the delight of many tweeters. Who knew the Fed could party like this? Below, I’ve compiled the regional-Fed tweets with a little bit of context: their nerdy, passionately macroeconomic tweets before and after this one crazy time when they loosened their bow ties and busted a 140-character move.
Before Fed Valentines:
During Fed Valentines:
After Fed Valentines:
Before Fed Valentines:
During Fed Valentines:
After Fed Valentines:
@AtlantaFed: What do inventory levels say about economic activity? Macroblog examines recent data to clarify
Before Fed Valentines:
@PhiladelphiaFed: Forecasters see a 9.5% chance of a downturn in the 1st QTR, down from the 16.6% they saw 3 months ago. $Fed, $Data
During Fed Valentines:
Before Fed Valentines:
@RichFedResearch: Could contingent capital — debt that converts to equity — help banks in distress?
During Fed Valentines:
After Fed Valentines:
Nothing. The Richmond Fed’s last tweet on Friday night was a Fed valentine. So romantic.
Before Fed Valentines:
@ChicagoFed: #fedvalentines is poetry in motion!
After Fed Valentines:
Before Fed Valentines:
During Fed Valentines:
Before Fed Valentines:
@NYFedResearch: Economists use lab to show, as theory predicts, that when assets can be used as collateral, their price goes up
During Fed Valentines
That’s the full roundup so far. A few (the minority!) of other Fed banks didn’t participate. But the real test of Fed valentines will come on Tuesday, when Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks. If he mentions Fed valentines, it will enter the realm of history.