Economics

I was just having an argument/debate about quantitative easing. Marshall Auerback, Randy Wray and I all have posts here at Credit Writedowns which explain that quantitative easing does not create new net financial assets and is merely an…

by Claus Vistesen I don't suspect anyone remember part 1 of this series. So if you want to refresh your memory, you can have a look here. In that note, I covered some of the more theoretical issues in the form of how demographics might…

Randall Wray shows that quantitative easing will be ineffective except to the degree it can induce a shift in private portfolio preferences. He uses a recent post by hedge fund manager Warren Mosler to demonstrate that QE is the equivalent…

The Fed, for whatever reason, has induced a shift in private portfolio preferences simply by talking about something.  But I think the point commentators like the Pragmatic Capitalist make is indisputably correct.  The policy…

Bloomberg notes: South Korea may revive a 14 percent tax on domestic Treasury and central bank bonds held by foreigners as early as January to curb foreign-exchange volatility, a ruling party lawmaker said. “If we don’t do it right now…

The following is a post I wrote earlier today at Naked Capitalism. I liked Ed's piece on QE called Does Ben Bernanke Believe The Stuff He Writes?. What caught my eye was his line, "As for monetary policy, while QE does not create new…

Paul Davidson argues that the Obama Administration and its allies in Congress have not actually followed the prescriptions laid out by the British economist Lord Keynes in making economic policy – and that this is a principal reason for…

James Galbraith was on Yahoo! Tech Ticker talking about Fed policy. The quote he made that caught my eye was this one in response to whether the Fed Chairman Bernanke believes what he says and writes: "Well, one thing you can…

by L. Randall Wray In recent weeks, the explanation for the financial and economic crisis that has gripped the world economy has shifted sharply from deregulation and lack of governmental oversight of financial institutions to fraud and…

Here's a good discussion of what liquidity traps are from John Hussman. His weekly market commentary begins: "There is the possibility... that after the rate of interest has fallen to a certain level, liquidity preference is…