Federal Reserve

Archive for Federal Reserve

Scott Sumner Statistics: Trust, But Verify

I am being sincere when I say that I’m not accusing him of skullduggery, but I’ve noticed that sometimes Scott Sumner’s descriptions of the data lead the reader to imagine something far different from the reality. A good recent example of this is Scott’s discussion of his theory that it was (purposelessly) tight monetary policy […]

The Fed and Conspiracies

One of the quickest ways to assess a person’s worldview is to ask, “How do you feel about conspiracy theories?” Murray Rothbard considered the very term to be loaded, used to discredit what were often sober and factual analyses of why certain government policies were actually implemented. In a recent post, Austrian economist Steve Horwitz […]

The Bernanke Legacy

The WSJ recently ran an interesting assessment of Bernanke’s legacy, as he chairs his final FOMC meeting this week. It opens with this provocative paragraph: As the Federal Reserve Chairman prepared to step down, the encomiums rolled in. “The most successful tenure in Fed history,” said the S&P economist. Added a former Fed Governor: “He […]

Bob Murphy vs. Bill Still

It’s the master of disaster versus the Money Master. It was supposed to be about money, but then we took off the gloves and started talking anarchy. Oh boy. When I saw the crowd was with him early on, I had to break out my Jimmy Stewart impression. I wasn’t screwing around. Incidentally, I have […]

“A Century of the Fed”

Next week I’ll be starting a 4-week online course offered through Mises Canada. Details here.

MK Lords and Tatiana Moroz Talk Music, the Fed, and Bitcoin

Meghan and Tatiana were two of the stars of Porcfest 2013. In this interview they cover a range of topics. Tatiana explains that she used to be liberal until she learned economics from a certain Republican politician–and it wasn’t Newt Gingrich. Not that you asked, but this is my favorite of Tatiana’s original songs:

Larry Summers: Artificially Low Interest Rates Cause Bubbles

Tyler Cowen finds this quotation from Larry Summers writing in the Washington Post: The second strategy, which has dominated U.S. policy in recent years, is lowering relevant interest rates and capital costs as much as possible and relying on regulatory policies to ensure financial stability. No doubt the economy is far healthier now than it […]