Monthly Archives: June 2011

Today marks the end of QE2 so naturally there are many discussions about its usefulness. A few examples: Real Time Economics1, Real Time Economics2 and Mark Thoma. I think Mark Thoma shows the key factor for the lackluster impact of … Continue reading →

Writing in late 1936 early 1937 (the article was published in 1938), Michael Palyi – Hungarian born, former Chief-Economist of Deutsche Bank and advisor to the German Central Bank during the financial reconstruction of Germany after the hyperinflation of the … Continue reading →

In this post, David Beckworth had this to say: U.S. households during the 1920s acquired a vast amount of debt and began a deleveraging process during the Great Depression. Consequently, there was a “balance sheet” recession in the 1930s too. … Continue reading →

He´s an inflation targeter through and through! And an inflation targeter wants, at all costs, to avoid deflation! That´s all folks! He has no understanding of the benefits from stabilizing nominal spending growth along a target path. He only thinks … Continue reading →

This month marks the two year anniversary of the recovery, with the recession that began on December 2007 having ended on June 2009. There´s certainly not much to celebrate given that the economy is still in the doldrums. Many errors … Continue reading →

In the Fiscal Times Mark Thoma expresses his fears: Until recently, it seemed unlikely that we were headed for a double-dip recession. We were clearly looking at  a very slow recovery, especially for employment, but there was little reason to … Continue reading →

This morning Krugman made a speech – Mr. Keynes and The Moderns (not, note, The Classics) – at the Cambridge Conference commemorating the 75th anniversary of The General Theory. He starts off: So what am I doing here? The answer, … Continue reading →

From a recent AP Survey: The best cure for the economy now is time. That’s the overwhelming opinion of leading economists in a new Associated Press survey. They say the Federal Reserve shouldn’t bother trying to stimulate the economy — … Continue reading →

Just keep static, like a statue. That´s what many are saying explicitly or merely implying about the Fed: That It should be conscious of its impotence. This is the bottom line of Tim Duy´s post today: Bottom Line: Both monetary … Continue reading →

The Fed did QE2 and it got inflation and inflation expectations up. But it did virtually nothing to aggregate nominal spending (see pictures). As a result it became a “lightening rod for criticism” (in the words of David Beckworth), like … Continue reading →