Monthly Archives: September 2012

Malthus wrote in Essay on the Principle of Population published in 1798, on the eve of the Industrial Revolution, that the future of mankind was bleak in the sense that mankind wouldn´t be able to rise much above subsistence. Believing … Continue reading →

FT/Alphaville has an interesting compilation of the NYT archives from the 1930s. I selected these two because they come on the heals of FDR´s delinking from gold expansionary monetary policy. We learn that the world is full of “Charles Plossers” … Continue reading →

That is, to the ineffectiveness of monetary policy at present. There are those, like Plosser, who believe this is unconditionally true, and there are those, like Michael Bordo, who praise the power of monetary policy, arguing, against the conventional wisdom, … Continue reading →

Am I wrong? Mr. Plosser said the best strategy for the Fed right now is simply to step aside. “This is just one of those recoveries where patience is going to be the biggest thing,” he said, adding “I don’t … Continue reading →

St. Peter is heaven´s “weather controller”. But he must be angry at our policymakers because he “blew” a drought that dragged down spring RGDP, which was revised down in this third and final estimate. The Fed remains quite unhelpful, different … Continue reading →

On the wake of the QE3 announcement stocks and inflation expectations jumped. But it was a short run move, with levels falling back to where they were just before the announcement. That´s maybe why Chicago Fed Charles Evans is “crying … Continue reading →

In his comment on Eli Dourado´s “Replies to my critics”, Scott Sumner writes: The previous two recessions saw small drops in NGDP growth, and slower than normal recoveries.  So there’s really no big mystery to explain, except to the extent … Continue reading →

Eli Dourado thinks so. He replied to his critics but Ryan Avent at Free Exchange did´t buy it. Ryan´s comment is very much worth reading because it clearly brings out the oft forgotten distinction between growth rates and levels: The Fed’s … Continue reading →

Krugman has a post entitled “More coulda been worse blogging” which features this single chart: But we know, or should, that RGDP is the end game, the driver being aggregate spending, or NGDP, which throws out real output on the … Continue reading →

This piece from the WSJ reports on Canada´s fiscal adjustment in the 1990s: Former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin has a stern warning for the U.S. political class: Get real about the gap between federal revenues and spending, or get … Continue reading →