Monetary Economics

James L. Caton

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6/3/21

Why Do Inflation Expectations Matter?

“Powell is telegraphing to the market that he hears their concerns about inflation. We will have to wait through the next several months to learn whether or not investors will be convinced.” ~ James L. Caton
Joakim Book

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5/31/21

You Cannot Eat Bitcoin

“You cannot eat bitcoin, or dollars, or bank balances, which means that whatever vehicle you use to move value across time has an exchange rate risk. Many bitcoiners’ mistake is to think that their preferred asset avoids this; Taleb’s mistake is to think that others can have a different view of government than him.” ~…
Gunther Schnabl & Nils Sonnenberg

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5/30/21

Argentina’s Creative Approaches to Debt Write Offs

“Whereas some private vulture funds found brutal means to achieve full repayment on their assets, international public institutions such as the IMF were repeatedly willing to take over the risk. This leniency may be due to the fact that the international taxpayers seem unaware of the burdens. It has to be seen which strategies will…
J.P. Koning

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5/29/21

Fighting Ransomware Doesn’t Require Banning Cryptocurrency

“With OFAC as coxswain, an embargo might achieve everything that a ban on cryptocurrency promises to achieve without depriving gamblers, outsiders, and hobbyists of a product they utilize. It would also be more effective than the status quo, which is not capable of stopping criminals who operate with impunity from noncompliant jurisdictions.” ~ J.P. Koning
Gregory van Kipnis

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5/28/21

The Fed Targets a Crafted Measure of Inflation: A Cautionary Tale

“Understanding government data for what they are and what they are not is vital to understanding the impossibility of targeting the cost of living, even though the Fed is targeting a crafted measure of price inflation.” ~ Gregory van Kipnis
Colin Lloyd

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5/27/21

Unemployment and Bankruptcies – Is This Time Different?

“The recovery we are witnessing today is built on the crumbling foundations of the serial malinvestments which resulted from previous attempts to avoid the recessionary pain caused by the GFC. If structural inflation can be engendered, an escape from the worst ravages of overindebtedness may be nigh, but, until markets clear and zombies die, what…
Ethan Yang

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5/24/21

Addressing Financial Exclusion: The Right Way and the Wrong Way

“Marginalized groups of people are more than capable of succeeding when you just get out of the way. Policymakers today must understand the devastating consequences of well-intentioned policies and the hard fact that an imperfect private sector response is far preferable to a counterproductive government response.” ~ Ethan Yang
Aleksandra Przegalinska

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5/19/21

What the Heck Is Bitcoin All About?

“Peter C. Earle, senior fellow at AIER joins Aleksandra Przegalinska for a conversation on the unknowns of bitcoin, crypto currency and blockchain technologies in the modern era.” ~ AIER
Daniel J. Mitchell

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5/19/21

Are Tax Increases Popular?

“Voters seem to be on the right side on the big-picture question of ‘Should taxes be higher?’, but if they think tax increases are going to happen, it’s quite likely that they will support the most economically damaging types of class-warfare levies.” ~ Daniel J. Mitchell
Joakim Book

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5/18/21

Lift Your Gaze, Please: the April Inflation Overshoot is Not the Problem

“A betting man, if he wants to remain a betting man, updates his priors. So, I side with Jason Bloom at the asset manager Invesco: ‘There is so much dislocation in the economy from the reopening and base effects from a year ago that it will take at least six to 12 months before we…