Thomas L. Hogan
Keep the Fed Out of Municipal Finance
“Chairman Powell should follow the advice of his predecessors. With the program still in its infancy and economic recovery already underway, now is the time to end the MLF in order to preserve the Fed’s independence, maintain the separation between fiscal and monetary policy, and deter additional calls for municipal bailouts in the future.” ~…
Small Business Lending Is Not the Fed’s Job
During times of economic crisis, should emergency loans to small businesses be made by the Department of Defense, Department of Education, or Department of State? I suspect most Americans would […]
Wars and the pre-Fed economy
Many economists assume that the Fed has improved U.S. economic performance relative to the pre-Fed periods. As I discussed in a previous blog post, however, the Fed has been better […]
Deposit insurance and monetary stability
Government deposit insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is intended to stabilize the financial system by preventing bank runs and financial contagion.
Sound money and banking
What role does banking play in a theory of sound money? Banks in the United States are regulated by several agencies, especially the Fed. But should the Fed really regulate […]
Will the ECB save Greece?
Following its recent elections, the government of Greece has requested a “haircut” or reduction in the interest rate it must pay on the 320 billion euros in debt it owes […]
Rules and directions
Ben Bernanke once got lost on his way to a meeting in Washington, D.C. When Bernanke stopped to ask for directions, the exchange went something like this
Common criticisms of the gold standard
Many mainstream economists believe that adopting a gold standard would be an economic disaster. But most of their objections appear to be inconsistent with the actual historical evidence. My new […]
Economic performance and the Federal Reserve
Many economists argue the Fed can improve economic performance by moderating booms and busts in the economy. Indeed, some studies propose that the volatility of GDP growth has declined under […]
Central banking and central planning
Last week in the Wall Street Journal, Paul Kupiec argued that the Fed’s new emphasis on “macroprudential” management is basically central planning and is likely to decrease financial stability and […]
