Financial Economics

Archive for Financial Economics

Quotable Quotes

Wittiest thing I heard today: A client whose check for my traveling expenses hadn’t shown up wrote something like, “Sorry Bob I mailed that on November 24. It’s not impossible that the Post Office just hasn’t delivered it yet, with the holiday. As my husband says, that 44-cent stamp is 14 cents for postage and […]

Potpourri

Once again the browser becomes turgid with tabs: * Jim Manzi has been having a good discussion/argument with Karl Smith, on the confidence economists should have in their models. If you go to this post, you can get up to speed. It’s an interesting discussion because if you read either of them, you totally “get” […]

Could the Fed Become Insolvent?

I discuss this possibility today at Mises.org. I walk through three separate (hypothetical) Fed balance sheets to show how it could occur. An excerpt: Although our central bank appears to be insolvent, in practice what would hinder its continued operation? Its liabilities consist in the legal-tender fiat money of the land. If someone walks into […]

How Does Scott Sumner Really Feel About “Income”?

I was reading Scott Sumner’s blog and was moved to send him this email (with links added): I was going to do a really smarmy post once I realized this, but I want to give you a chance to defend yourself. Here’s my problem: (A) You have been arguing that income is a meaningless concept, […]

“The Day the Dollar Died”

This is the coolest commercial for a non-profit organization I have ever seen. Their doomsday scenario is very plausible, in my view. (HT2 Jeff Tucker)

Just a Reminder: You Can Have High Unemployment and Price Inflation Simultaneously

I am working on a C4L rebuttal to this Greg Ip article. But I thought I’d give you guys a sneak peek on one of my points. Ip apparently subscribes to the “we’re all Keynesians now” view when he writes: People and businesses spend when their incomes are growing and they’re confident about the future…If…spending […]

Scott Sumner’s Funeral: A Shovel-Ready Project

Sumner keeps digging himself deeper on this issue of “income is meaningless and pernicious.” To refresh your memory, Scott first advanced this thesis here. Then I criticized his view here. I figured Scott would say, “OK, ya got me, I was just speaking in hyperbole because income taxes drive me bonkers.” But no, Scott doubled […]

Paul Krugman, Liquidationist

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am not going to accuse Krugman of all sorts of perfidy. I genuinely want one of his defenders to explain this recent post. Krugman is arguing that the cases of Ireland and Iceland show that the types of remedies he has been suggesting, work out much better than the […]