Is the public opposed to NGDP targeting?
I just listened to a very interesting Macro Musings podcast—with David Beckworth interviewing Tyler Cowen. Tyler sees the Fed passivity during the last decade as part of a broader increase in risk...
View ArticleWhy Trump might keep Yellen
Many commenters have taken it as a given that Trump will replace Janet Yellen next year. I certainly think that’s possible, but I’ve also argued that he might reappoint Yellen. Now that seems a bit...
View ArticleIt was not “inability”
Over at Econlog, I have a post discussing Bernanke’s views on price level targeting. Here I’d like to nitpick a couple passages from Bernanke’s post: As price-level targeting and “make-up” policies...
View ArticleMost shocks don’t matter
Over the past 18 months we’ve seen three major shocks, each of which were expected to have a significant impact on growth: 1. The late 2015 Chinese yuan devaluation/capital outflow shock 2. Brexit 3....
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How bad is the Italian debt situation?
Tyler Cowen recently linked to a John Cochrane post, discussing Larry Kotlikoff’s views on public debt sustainability. Here’s Cochrane: (By the way, if you’re feeling superior and taking comfort that...
View ArticleHow Trump plans to boost the housing industry
Slate.com has an article discussing how Trump’s policies are impacting the housing industry: Competition for labor in the housing market has been intense for some time, in part because the flow of...
View ArticleAprès moi le déluge
Somehow Donald Trump ended up in the White House–an outcome that seemed to surprise even him. Now he needs to figure out what to do next. (No, the campaign promises don’t provide any sort of coherent...
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Hard data beats sentiment in Q1
For the past 3 months there’s been a raging battle between the Atlanta Fed and the New York Fed. The Atlanta Fed relies mostly on hard data when predicting GDP growth, whereas the New York Fed puts...
View ArticleLeaders don’t matter as much as you think
Leaders do matter, sometimes (as with Hitler) quite a bit. But overall I believe that leaders matter much less than people think. It’s human nature to anthropomorphize big changes. Thus the...
View ArticleThree podcasts
I recently listened to three podcasts, involving James Bullard, Miles Kimball and Tyler Cowen. In all three cases, I found myself agreeing with most of the ideas. Here I’ll mention a few areas of...
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