monetary policy

The yen was the weakest of the major currencies in Q1, losing about 7.2% against the dollar. There was a clear shift in both speculative and portfolio flows. This is just one of seven observations about the Yen via Marc Chandler.

The Fed is in a tough spot. They want to do more. Things are unravelling in Europe and the slowdown in Brazil, India and China is well-advanced. While the jobs outlook has improved in the US, there is still considerable slack in labor…

The minutes from the March FOMC meeting have continued to drive the dollar higher, except against the yen, and bonds and stocks lower. Especially in the context of Bernanke's recent remarks, the, should we say less than dovish, tone to the…

We seem to be moving forward with this discussion on monetary policy, banking, and reserves. John Carney does a good job of summarising some of the initial forays in this back and forth. I am going to try my hand at framing the discussion…

I think the real difference between what Nick Rowe is saying and what people like Scott Fullwiler and Steve are saying is that Nick believes over the medium-term, central bank interest rate policy is endogenous. What I think Nick means is…

The video below is from On the Edge with Max Keiser. I speak to Max during this show from 31 March about the US economy, Federal Reserve policy, financial repression and more. On the issue of financial repression, I think my view is pretty…

In Paul Krugman’s view, banks are not very important since all they do is to intermediate between savers and investors, taking in deposits and packaging them into loans. Now, I know that Krugman’s own specialty is not money and banking, so…

The debate between Paul Krugman and my friend Steve Keen regarding how banks work (see here, here, here, and here) has caused me to revisit an old quote. Back in the 1990s I would use Krugman’s book, Peddling Prosperity (1995), in my…

Paul Krugman’s claim that those who argue banks play an essential role in macroeconomics are “Banking Mystics” has a natural riposte: Neoclassical economists like Krugman who believe that capitalism can be modelled without either money or…

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been guest lecturing at George Washington University, giving students a four-part series of talks entitled "The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis". Below are the slides that accompanied his…