Did Ben Bernanke Call for Euthanasia of the Rentier or of the Pensioner?
Keynes called for “the euthanasia of the rentier” by government suppression of the interest rate (chapter 24 of General Theory). Bernanke did the same with pensioners, he threw them under a bus with...
View ArticleWho Is Worth More: Some Hedge Funds or All our Kindergartens?
"The top 25 hedge fund managers made more than all the kindergarten teachers in the country," declared President Obama in a discussion of poverty at Georgetown University. Calling them “society’s...
View ArticleHow Could the Fed Protect Us from Economic Waves?
Mainstream economists tell us that the Federal Reserve protects us from economic waves, indeed from the business cycle itself. In their view, people naturally tend to go overboard and cause wild swings...
View ArticleThe Dog That Did not Bark
In the famous Sherlock Holmes Story, the detective identified the perpetrator from the fact that a dog didn’t bark. The dog didn’t bark because it dog knew the perp. This story makes a good analogy to...
View ArticleWhat’s Different about Monetary Policy?
Keith Weiner argues that the money that many money managers make does not come from producing anything of value. It’s other people’s life savings that they are driving and eating.
View ArticleWill a GDP Futures Market Be Liquid?
At the Cato Monetary Conference, Scott Sumner said he had a “modest” proposal, that there should be a highly liquid futures market in Nominal Gross Domestic Product (NGDP). Sumner is known for his view...
View ArticleA Free Market in Interest Rates
Unless you’re living under a rock, you know that we have an administered interest rate. This means that the bureaucrats at the Federal Reserve decide what’s good for the little people. Then they impose...
View ArticleJanet Yellen Fights the Tide of Falling Interest
The Fed is going to have to take back this interest rate hike (Dec 16). The process that sets the interest rate is complex. I have written many words on its terminal decline. However, there are two...
View ArticleWhat Is Money Printing?
There is a populist idea of money printing. The idea is that banks can just print what they want, enriching themselves in a massive fraud. But, does it really work this way?
View ArticleWho Lends to the Fed?
This leads to our present question. To speak of borrowing and a ready market in which the Fed can borrow, means there is a lender. Who is the lender to the Fed?
View ArticleShould the Gold Price Keep Up with Inflation?
The popular belief is that gold is a good hedge against inflation. Owning gold will protect you from rising prices. Is that true?
View ArticleMoney Supply Arguments Are Flawed
It goes without question, among economists of the central planning mindset, that if a central bank can just set the right quantity of dollars, then the price level, GDP, unemployment, and everything...
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