Federal Reserve

Archive for Federal Reserve

Greenspan Might Be a Little Too Frank

As longtime readers know, I am fascinated by “conspiracy theories” and cannot rule out the possibility that there is a cabal of lizard people running the world. Anyway, if the cabal exists, I have to think they are upset at Alan Greenspan’s glibness in this interview. (HT2 EPJ) That’s always gotta be tough, when somebody […]

More Evidence That Scott Sumner Is Insane

For a while I have confidently asserted that economist Scott Sumner is insane. (Believe it or not, Scott himself understands why I say this as a compliment. I’m not saying he’s flattered, mind you, just that he gets my weird sense of humor.) Today I will not talk about his views that our current recession […]

And Now, the End Is Near…

Sing it, Frank. Robert Wenzel’s EPJ Alert tipped me off to the fact that excess reserves are finally dropping, while required reserves are rising. Wenzel actually looks at the Fed’s data release, whereas I had been lazy and only checked the FRED graphs (which apparently are a month behind). Anyway, for a long time people […]

Extended Arthur Laffer Appearance on CNBC

My former boss gets the chance to spell out his worldview here: Incidentally, I had someone ask me (because of the above interview) whether Laffer had always been so nuanced on whether tax rate reductions would lead to tax revenue increases. And the answer is, “Yes, that has always been his position.” In other words, […]

I’m Still Not Seeing the Deflationary Threat

Today the BLS put out its official Consumer Price Index numbers. From July 2010 to July 2011, unadjusted CPI rose 3.6%. Yesterday the Producer Price Index (PPI) numbers came out. Here is the breakdown of 12-month changes by category: Finished goods +7.2% Intermediate goods +11.6% Crude goods +22.6% If I didn’t know any better, I’d […]

Big Deficits and Easy Money Have Failed

That was the title I had given it, but at Mises they called it “End This Agony.” For what it’s worth, I consider this the single best critique of Krugman I have written. I realize it will not convince those of you who believe in bigger deficits and more quantitative easing, but I don’t know […]

Fed Keeps Us Guessing

You know how the debt ceiling deal made everybody mad? It looks like the Fed is playing the same game. The FOMC’s announcement didn’t promise anything “bold” like Scott Sumner, Paul Krugman, Tyler Cowen, and “the markets” were hoping, but they also didn’t promise to let their balance sheet shrink and let Treasurys find their […]

Greenspan’s Probability Skills as Good as His Monetary Policies

Most of you by now have already seen this, I’m sure: (I saw that particular video linked from EPJ, but it’s all over the place.) Now lots of people are (rightly) flipping out over Greenspan’s move into MMT territory. But what I want to focus on is his absurd claim that there is “zero probability” […]