Federal Reserve

Archive for Federal Reserve

There’s Really Been a Lot of Real Shocks to the Economy

The venerable von Pepe sends me a good post by Larry White, who isn’t as sure as many of his colleagues that the world economy today is primarily troubled by inadequate demand: Scott Sumner told us in September 2009 that “the real problem was nominal,” that is, the recession and its high unemployment were primarily […]

The Fatal Conceit

[UPDATE below.] The title of this post refers, of course, to Hayek’s warning about really smart guys thinking they understand a complex system well enough to start tinkering with it. Nick Rowe has had the generosity (and intrepidity) to hang out in the comments of my post criticizing his optimism over QE3. He told me […]

Nick Rowe Is Going to Excommunicate Me

Wow. I have been immersing myself in the monetary economics blogosphere discussions, and I don’t likes what I sees. In this post I’ll talk about Nick Rowe, whom you may recall I previously dubbed a kung fu master. As with Scott Sumner, so too with Nick: I want to preface this post by saying he’s […]

Explainer: Why I Claim Scott Sumner Is Insane in the Brain

I often say that I think Scott Sumner is “insane.” Now, on the one hand I’m obviously just joking; as I’ve mentioned a few times, Scott has a good sense of humor and I think he (mostly) appreciates my jabs (though not of course my policy recommendations). On the other hand, though, I choose the […]

TIPS Breakeven Bask

Hey kids, I just want to make sure I’m interpreting these Bloomberg charts right. As usual, please be clear when you chime in, if you actually know what you’re talking about, or if you are just guessing. Guessing is welcome, but just be clear if that’s what you’re doing, please. So I think this chart […]

Potpourri

==> Joe Salerno replies to George Selgin regarding Krugman’s challenge to the Austrians on MMMF. I actually think both Joe and George are wrong: They both use the phrase “could care less” when, in context, it is clear that they meant “couldn’t care less.” (Joe uses it in the post, George in his second reply, […]

ECON MOMENT QE3

Still got a lot of tweakin’ to do, but the foundation is now here (new camera and lapel mic). Thanks to Josh from Blimey Cow for helping me get going again, and of course to Tom Woods for bugging me periodically.

This Time Will Be Different

“One good question some of my readers have been asking is how the Fed’s new policy might actually boost the economy — that is, how could changes in expectations turn into a real increase in demand? … [W]e actually can hope that the Fed’s new policy will boost housing as well as operating through other […]