Debt is a sign of progress. It’s a market signal about growing future earnings for families and businesses. Despite this, politicians continue to argue the opposite. Looking for ways to demagogue the national debt, they lament the inability of our federal government to do as families and businesses routinely do whereby they “balance their […]
The Myth About ‘Balanced’ Family and Business Budgets Read More »
The Federal Reserve is irrelevant. Market signals continue to confirm the previous truth while economists and pundits continue to follow what’s irrelevant in breathy fashion. In future decades and centuries, economic archaeologists will marvel that what was so unimportant was taken so seriously. To recognize the Fed’s insignificance, all readers need to do is
To Track Interest Rates Watch Blackstone Group, Not The Fed Read More »
“They have treated us very unfairly on trade.” That’s one of President Trump’s most frequent economic themes, and he has a point. So do “they.” To see why, it’s easy to forget that no one buys or sells with money. All trade is products for products, with money serving as the agreement about value
Trade Disputes Are An Unfortunate Effect of Floating Money Read More »
Politicians are human. So are central bankers. Since central bankers are human, it’s a fact of life that their personal feelings, biases and politics will inform their decisions. It’s something to think about as allegedly free-market economic types pursue a rules-based Federal Reserve. Of the view that “monetary policy rules” will somehow restrain the
There’s No Such Thing As a ‘Apolitical’ Fed, Nor Does It Matter Read More »
Back in March of 2020, former Federal Reserve Board member Kevin Warsh penned an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal (“Let the Fed Administer an Antiviral Shot”) calling for the Federal Reserve to provide “liquidity” to American businesses crushed by lockdowns instituted by coronavirus-panicked politicians. Instead of recommending a cessation of the lockdowns
Neither Govt Spending Nor Fed Printing Brought Higher Prices Read More »
The Federal Reserve doesn’t need to adopt a “Monetary Policy Rule.” Not only would the central bank shed the pretense of rules-based constraints on its power during times of upheaval and uncertainty as is, there’s no good time for meddling by central banks, or for that matter any governmental entity. Market intervention is always
A ‘Monetary Rule’ Doesn’t Suddenly Validate Mkt. Intervention Read More »
