Robert Hetzel’s history of the Fed
Robert Hetzel has written an outstanding new book entitled The Federal Reserve: A New History. I reviewed the book for Central Banking. Here’s an excerpt: During 2008, the Fed overreacted to (transitory) rising energy prices, and policy became too contractionary during the early stages of the Great Recession. Just as during the Great Depression of […]
China’s troubles about debt | Financial Times
Reassuringly, if you weren’t aware China even had a local debt problem until you read the headline of this article, China says it doesn’t have a local debt problem. Via Bloomberg: China said local government debt is manageable and authorities have enough financial resources to avoid risks from spreading, seeking to allay investor fears of […]
Links 6/5/2023 | naked capitalism
Patient readers, I apologize that this Links is a bit lengthy and there are several long reads. In an excess of zeal, I over-collected link candidates, and I found it too hard to let go of some of them. Take what you like, and leave the rest! –lambert * * * The Economics Of Bee […]
Who is keeping coal alive?
Mountains of coal are piled beneath azure skies at the port of Newcastle, Australia. Giant shovels chip away at them, scooping the fuel onto conveyor belts, which whizz it to cargo ships that can be as long as three football pitches. The harbour’s terminals handle 200m tonnes of the stuff a year, making Newcastle the […]
Decentralization and Bitcoin | AIER
From the late-1980s until the early 2000s, the Cypherpunks – a group of cryptographers, mathematicians, computer scientists and activists – worked to build what they referred to as a crypto-anarchist “Galt’s Gulch in cyberspace.” This virtual place would be one where individuals from around the world could communicate and engage in commerce, with property rights […]
Can Trump End the Ukraine War in 24 hrs?
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Trump-on-Ukraine.mp4 This war could be ended in 24 hours. (1) stop all money going to Ukraine, (2) threaten to freeze all their assets, (3) threaten to remove Ukraine from SWIFT, (4) Order Ukraine to honor the Minsk Agreement. To Russia: (1) Lift all sanctions (2) No NATO training or weapons for Ukraine (3) Ukraine […]
China set to account for less than half of US’s low-cost imports from Asia
China will soon account for less than half of the US’s low-cost imports from Asia for the first time in more than a decade, new data has shown, as western companies shift operations out of the country. According to an annual reshoring index from Kearney, the Chicago-based management consulting firm, US efforts to reduce reliance […]
Beware of foolproof recession indicators
Beware of “foolproof” recession indicators. For years, people have been telling me that an inversion of the 2-year and 10-year yield spread on Treasury securities indicates that a recession will occur within 12 months. I’ve warned them that while the indicator has a good track record, it’s far from perfect. This yield spread inverted on […]
Don’t Listen to De-growthers — Economic Growth Is Healthy!
With the pandemic and the rise of climate alarmism, attacks on economic growth have multiplied. An increasingly larger set of pundits, academics, and politicians now embrace some variants of de-growth. They tie economic growth to a variety of “bad” outcomes. One of those “bads” is the idea that economic growth is not yielding many fruits […]
Links 6/3/2023 | naked capitalism
Christianity and money– This article provides some very interesting history of the relationship between Christianity and money between the time of Constantine, when Christianity and the Roman state became aligned, up through Aquinas in the Late Middle Ages with a quick peak at the 19th century. The article confirms my perception of this history that […]