Monthly Archives: March 2011

Via Stephen Gandel of The Curious Capitalist, I learn that Kathleen Madigan has thought up a new “Misery Index”, according to which, compared to now, the 1970´s was “bliss”! So how does the economy measure up to the 1970s based … Continue reading →

After reading this:  It’s clear which way the Fed has erred recently. It has done too little. It stopped trying to bring down long-term interest rates early last year under the wishful assumption that a recovery had taken hold, only … Continue reading →

It´s all “up for grabs”. Who´ll win? The “hardcore” or the “softcore”. When you reason from rates of change (be it prices or real growth) forgetting the depth of the hole you fell into, you´re bound to get it wrong. … Continue reading →

that there are sane people still around. This is an interview with Adam Posen external BoE external MPC member: The Bank of England‘s leading dove has predicted that inflation will tumble to 1.5% by the middle of next year as … Continue reading →

It was when the gong announced the year 2009 had arrived. This happened during the AEA meeting on January 3-5. This NYT report on the meeting is enlightening: SAN FRANCISCO — Frightened by the recession and the credit crisis that … Continue reading →

In a recent post, Scott Sumner concludes by saying, in reference to Friedman´s “torch”: 1. Demand shocks drive the business cycle. 2.  Monetary policy is the best tool for demand stabilization. 3.  Monetary policy is very powerful at the zero … Continue reading →

Yesterday I sent an article by Ramesh Ponnuru, titled “Not Enough Money” that was published in the latest issue of National Review Online (NRO) to Scott Sumner. Scott did a post on it. Than I remembered sometime in the second … Continue reading →

Some posts merit the widest audience possible. That´s my justification for linking to this beautiful piece by Nick Rowe: Keynesian unemployment makes sense in a monetary exchange economy, where money is what Hahn calls “essential” for trade. It makes no … Continue reading →

Paul Krugman takes issue with a paper by Mankiw that argues “that fiscal expansion shouldn´t be the tool of choice even at the ZLB; that MP can still work if you can credibly make commitments about future MP”. Krugman notes … Continue reading →

The first graph shows alternative measures of “core” CPI inflation. Note: It´s a good thing that inflation turned up following QE2. In that sense, QE2 is working. More significantly, if most were happy with the inflation observed in 2005-2007, the … Continue reading →