103: Fed Deep Dive Pt. 5: The Calm Before the Crisis

103: Fed Deep Dive Pt. 5: The Calm Before the Crisis

From Market MakeHer Podcast by Jessica Inskip and Jessie DeNuit

March 5, 2026 · 33 min · Season 3 · Episode 103

About this episode

The episode explores the calm period of the U.S. economy known as The Great Moderation and its implications for self-directed investors.

Yes, we’re back down “The Fed” rabbit hole, err um, history lesson that we can learn from as self-directed investors. Okay, so this one surprised me. There was actually a time when the U.S. economy was… chill? From the mid-80s to the mid-2000s, inflation stayed low, growth was steady, and recessions barely made a dent. Jess Inskip calls it The Great Moderation — basically, the Fed’s calm era, when they learned that communication and credibility could stabilize the economy just as much as interest rates. In this episode, we dig into how Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke helped turn “don’t panic” into policy, from the first-ever Fed statements to the now-famous dot plot. But (you knew there was a “but”)… that long stretch of calm also created a little too much confidence, setting the stage for what came next: the Great Financial Crisis. So grab your tea — we’re talking about the era when the Fed made it look easy… right before it got really hard. ------------------------------------------------------ Ask Us a Question, Leave a Review, Follow, Subscribe: Support the show⁠ 🔗 All Market MakeHer Links 👀 ⁠ ⁠⁠YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠ ✨ Jess Inskip: ⁠TikTok⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ✨ Jessie DeNuit…

People in this episode

Hosts: Jess Inskip, Jessie DeNuit

Topics covered

  • Federal Reserve
  • economic history
  • self-directed investing
  • The Great Moderation
  • financial crises
  • interest rates
  • economic policy

Keywords

  • Federal Reserve
  • The Great Moderation
  • Alan Greenspan
  • Ben Bernanke
  • Great Financial Crisis
  • economic stability
  • interest rates
  • investing education

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Fed

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