Yesterday, the Federal Reserve announced a group of task forces to review the central bank's framework for conducting monetary policy. Along with Tom Sargent and Bill White, I am serving on one of them.Note to journalists: It would be prema…
Over the past week, I have been watching some films at the Nantucket Film Festival. The best I saw was The Invite, a dramedy about a couple (played by Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde) in a dysfunctional marriage who invite their neighbors (Ed N…
Last week, I saw the play Every Billiant Thing, which was absolutely fantastic. As this NY Times article describes, audience participation is central. In our performance, I was picked to play the father. Here I am with the star, Daniel Radc…
Here is the link. I paste a copy below. The Federal Reserve’s independence and the public’s perception of that independence are critical for economic performance, including achieving the goals Congress has set for the Federal Reserve of sta…
Here is the link. I paste a copy below. The Federal Reserve’s independence and the public’s perception of that independence are critical for economic performance, including achieving the goals Congress has set for the Federal Reserve of sta…
My friend Yoram Bauman (known for, among other things, his Ten Principles parody) has some news: I only lost half my shirt on the stage-play version of Seize The Initiative! (a romantic comedy about democracy, climate action, and sandwiches…
I recently ran across a graduation speech by the tennis great Roger Federer. I especially appreciated this passage: In the 1,526 singles matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches... Now, I have a question for all of y…
Apparently, there is an ongoing debate in Trumpworld about whether more H1B visas are a good thing. From an economic perspective, the answer is a clear yes. From the standpoint of economic efficiency, allowing a highly skilled immigrant to
One peer reviewer suggested that Darwin drop all the evolution stuff and expand the chapter on raising pigeons. (“Everybody is interested in pigeons,” the reviewer explained.) I was recently a panelist at an NBER conference, organized by La…
I was recently chatting with someone who teaches introductory macroeconomics (not using my favorite textbook). He does not teach the students about money creation under fractional reserve banking, which he considers an unnecessary technical…
1. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank seems closely related to the fact that we recently experienced the largest drawdown in bonds in history. That is, the bank made an imprudent bet on interest rates and was very, very unlucky. 2. Contrar…
I thought I might explain my fear that the Fed is in the process of tightening too much. Let me begin, however, with two points of agreement with the monetary hawks. First, I agree that monetary and fiscal policymakers are partly to blame f…