The Fed Should Coordinate a Rate Cut
The Fed's target Fed funds rate reached 2 percent on April 30, which, given the higher inflation rate this year, is lower in real terms than the 1 percent target rate in 2003. The aggressive Fed easing...
View ArticleCredit Card Regulation and Unintended Consequences: Bringing Back old Memories
Yesterday's one-sided Senate vote to increase regulation of credit cards brought back some old mixed memories. My first testimony to a legislative body was to a Committee of the Maryland Legislature...
View ArticleWill low Fed Interest Rates Cause Inflation?
On Tues. I appeared on The Kudlow Report to discuss the prospect of long term inflation. I made the remark that monetary policy is not that easy, and the Fed's main concern should be preventing...
View ArticleFederal Reserve Purchases of Treasuries, the Yield Curve, and Operation Twist
We get evidence frequently these days of the relative youth of those on financial television, both interviewers and interviewees. Their historical frame of reference doesn't go back very far; so they...
View ArticleThe Fed’s Box: Quantitative Easing and Rising Long-Term Interest Rates
Once upon a time, people took rising interest rates as evidence of tighter money. Then, circumstances and growing sophistication led to recognition that rising inflation and/or rising inflationary...
View ArticleMonetary Policy is Not Interest-Rate Policy
(The FOMC Should Start Making that Distinction) Monetary policy is not interest-rate policy. Neither is it Fed balance-sheet policy. Monetary policy is money-supply policy. Sometimes these...
View Article
