Monthly Archives: December 2011

2011 ends on a high note for “Market Monetarism” and “NGDP Targeting”. The last quarter of the year has been especially exiting. NGDP (level) Targeting was “endorsed” by Krugman, Christina Romer and Goldman Sachs, among other “luminaries”. During the period … Continue reading →

Ezra Klein presents the “wonk awards” of 2011. Of major interest: Central bank of the year: Sweden’s Riksbank. It’s hard to avoid noticing that Sweden has dodged the economic woes that are ailing most of the world. Part of the credit here goes … Continue reading →

Maybe he had nothing better to do, or maybe he just wanted to pick a fight, but the fact is that Krugman went back almost three years to cite a speech by Lucas: There have been a lot of shockingly … Continue reading →

The Economist has a long article on “economics in the blogoshere”: From his perch on America’s periphery, Mr Mosler champions a doctrine on the edge of economics: neo-chartalism, sometimes called “Modern Monetary Theory”. The neo-chartalists believe that because paper currency … Continue reading →

In “European Fiscal Zombies” he argues that the German view of “fiscal profligacy” behind the crisis is dead wrong. The NYT had this piece: Germany has adamantly opposed what it sees as rewarding the bad behavior of southern rim countries … Continue reading →

Jon Hilsenrath at the WSJ writes that the Fed is “cheering”: U.S. inflation is slowing after a surge early in the year. This is good news for Americans, as it means the money in their pockets goes further. It also … Continue reading →

And when a famous economist like John Cochrane lets his “beliefs” (as in “religious beliefs”) intervene in his economic analysis, a philosopher is able to criticize and do a much better piece of, you know, economic analysis. John Cochrane´s recent … Continue reading →

Scott Sumner links to this post by Matt Iglesias: To step back to the hyperinflation. You might ask yourself how things could possibly have gotten that bad. And the answer really just comes down to refusal to admit that a … Continue reading →

And Arnold Kling is no exception: The Fed was very successful at bailing out large financial institutions. It was a failure at maintaining nominal GDP growth. You would think that this would make the Fed highly vulnerable politically. However, the … Continue reading →

Early last year, Blanchard, IMF´s Chief-Economist, was strongly proposing higher inflation targets. Almost a couple of years later he completely eschews monetary policy, only obliquely mentioning the need for “liquidity provision”:  Put these four factors together, and you can explain why … Continue reading →