The resulting empirical policy rule of thumb—a so-calledTaylor rule—recommends lowering the funds rate by 1.3 percentage points if core inflation falls by one percentage point and by almost two percentage points if the unemployment rate rises by one percentage point.As shown in Figure 2,this simple rule of thumb captures the broad contours of policy over the past two decades.Differences between the recommended target rate from the estimated policy rule (the thin line) and the Fed’s actual target funds rate (the thick line) are fairly small.Exceptions occurred during the mid-1990s and mid-2000s,when the funds rate was set somewhat higher or lower than the policy rule recommended.During 2007 and 2008,by this rudimentary empirical metric,the Fed’s lowering of the funds rate by over five percentage points was roughly in line with its historical behavior.