Symmetric Goals, Asymmetric Risks
David Altig: Symmetric goals, asymmetric risks, by David Altig: Mark Thoma has been hanging out with my boss or at least was at the same conference, where Thoma had a chance to try out his reporter chops: "I just got...
"Gauging the Benefits, Costs, and Sustainability of U.S. Stimulus"
[Another travel day, and then hopefully back to normal tomorrow.] Did the stimulus work? According to a collaboration between Fitch Ratings and Oxford economics, the answer is yes: Government stimulus moves may have ended recession, by Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles...
No floating Treasuries for you – just yet
Floating Rate NotesAs noted in the February quarterly refunding statement, Treasury believes that there are benefits to issuing floating rate notes (FRNs). In recent weeks...
Please Sirs, May We Have Some More?
Nobel Prize winner Robert Engle says more inflation would help: New York University professor Robert Engle said policy makers should consider allowing slightly higher inflation as a way to spur the U.S. economy, joining fellow Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman...
Is the Fed’s Inflation Target Symmetric?
I just got out of a press conference with Dennis Lockhart (Atlanta Fed president) and Charles Evans (Chicago Fed president). I can't say there was any real news, but I did manage to ask a question. After forgetting to introduce...
"NGDP Targeting: Some Questions"
David Andolfatto has some questions for supporters of NGDP targeting (David's request to point him in the direction of past defenses of NGDP targeting reminds me of this from David Beckworth responding to some questions I posed in a post...
Fed Watch: Bernanke’s Shift
Tim Duy: Bernanke's Shift, by Tim Duy: There has been a fierce counterattack to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's assertion that he is indeed the same Professor Bernanke that advised the Bank of Japan a decade ago. See, for example,...
GDP Growth Could be Higher
GDP growth for the first quarter, as noted in the post below this one, is estimated to be 2.2%. That is not as high as it needs to be to recover in a decent amount of time, and one of...
Fed Policy Remains on Hold
My reaction to the Fed's Press Release from its monetary policy meeting that ended today. Fed Policy Remains on Hold: (MoneyWatch) COMMENTARY The Federal Reserve just concluded a two-day meeting to decide what's next for monetary policy, and as was...
FOMC statement…
Full statement below. Short version: “expanding moderately”, rates on hold, and a Lacker dissent. Bolded para is a copy and paste job from the last statement. Zzzzz....
Fed Watch: Distributional Impacts of Monetary Policy
Tim Duy: Distributional Impacts of Monetary Policy, by Tim Duy: Dean Baker, responding to this Wall Street Journal article, sees an opportunity to make us aware on the distributional impacts of monetary choices. Specifically, Baker responds to the claim that...
"Plutocrats and Printing Presses"
Paul Krugman: Plutocrats and Printing Presses, by Paul Krugman: These past few years have been lean times in many respects — but they’ve been boom years for agonizingly dumb, pound-your-head-on-the-table economic fallacies. The latest fad — illustrated by this piece...
