Bryan Cutsinger and Alexander William Salter argue that the Fed’s dual mandate is redundant because there is no trade-off between inflation and unemployment:

Economists should be leading the charge on reforming the Fed’s mandate so that we can avoid situations like the one in which we currently find ourselves. Sadly, many have gotten lost in the woods because they ignored the map provided by the aggregate supply-aggregate demand model. Some made a fetish out of theory, creating ever-more mathematically sophisticated yet practically irrelevant models. Others abandoned theory for pure statistical analysis. Both approaches are a dead end. Economists have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to advise public officials on the best way to reorient the Fed. If they return to their roots and put their training to work, the economics profession and the public will be much better off.

Read the whole thing here.