Federal Reserve

Archive for Federal Reserve

Resolution of the Sumner/Richman Showdown

[UPDATE below.] You may recall that I was earlier puzzled at Scott Sumner’s commentary on a Sheldon Richman article talking about Cantillon effects. If you care, I now have the resolution, because of Scott’s follow-up post. Scott actually doesn’t dispute anything in what the Austrians have in mind when they say “it matters who gets […]

IMF OK With Capital Controls, Inflationists Shrug

Bloomberg: The International Monetary Fund endorsed nations’ use of capital controls in certain circumstances, making official a shift, which has been in the works for three years, that will guide the fund’s advice. In a reversal of its historic support for unrestricted flows of money across borders, the Washington-based IMF said controls can be useful […]

Scott Sumner and I Have a Failure to Communicate

This is really freaky. It’s like with the “top income tax rate in 2013” debacle. Can somebody read the exchanges between Sumner and me in this post–responding to a Sheldon Richman article–and tell me what the heck is going on? As best I can tell, Scott position is the following: “You Austrians are nutty for […]

One More on Epistemic Closure and Conservatives

Last post on this and I will move on to greener pastures… There are two remaining ironies I would like to point out, in Krugman’s high-fiving of Bruce Bartlett for being so open-minded in his denunciation of those close-minded conservatives. (BTW a funny and apropos aside: I pass the Scott Sumner Turing Test.) (1) Look […]

Learn the Austrian Take on the Great Depression

Here’s the full infomercial for my class on the Great Depression that starts this Friday. We’ve got Depression-era pricing of only $59 for a 5-week course. I’m excited to teach this so bust out your credit card. An excerpt: The weekly lectures will run from November 16 through December 14. The first week will provide […]

I Think Bryan Caplan Should Tweak His Quality Control Setting

Yesterday at EconLog Bryan Caplan had a post entitled “Optimal Open-Mindedness” in which he wrote: Lately a few people have accused me of being “closed-minded.” As they’d predict, I reject the accusation. I say my degree of openness is close to optimal. Consistent with Bayesian reasoning, I am as reluctant to claim vindication by events as I […]

The System Is Rigged: The Futility of Politics

[Such is the title of my article in the October issue of the Lara-Murphy Report (sample issues and subscription info here). This month we interview Dr. Murray Sabrin, who–among other things–is Professor of Finance at Ramapo College of New Jersey, is producing a documentary on the 100th anniversary of the Fed, ran for governor of […]

Let’s Delve a Little Deeper Into Krugman’s Newfound Respect for Liquidity Trap Economics in Japan

Krugman often tells of how he is a true scientist because he didn’t believe in the liquidity trap, until faced with the problem of Japan in the 1990s. Then he realized that unconventional monetary policy–the promise to be irresponsible in the future–was something the Bank of Japan could do. All of this serves as a […]