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Articles by Marcus Nunes

About the Author

Marcus Nunes
João Marcus Marinho Nunes is a partner of Phynance Estratégias Quantitativas e Investimentos and a professor of Economics at Fundação Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo, Brazil. He also blogs here: http://thefaintofheart.wordpress.com/
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World economy 29th September 2014

The degree of “great” in “Great Stagnation” is a choice variable

SAO PAOLO | By Marcus Nunes via Historinhas | Scott Sumner writes “What kind of Great Stagnation?” It seems to me that the Krugman/Summers view has three big problems: The standard textbook model says demand shocks have cyclical effects, and that after wages and prices adjust the economy self-corrects back to the natural rate after a few years. Even if it takes 10 years, it would not explain the longer-term stagnation that they believe is occurring.

economic stagnation

World economy 25th September 2014

USE-ME to avoid secular economic stagnation

SAO PAULO | Benjamin Cole via Marcus Nune’s Historinhas | Well, if a Martin Wolf can call for permanent QE by all Western governments, and if a John Cochrane can suggest the U.S. Federal Reserve should completely liquidate the U.S. national debt, than I guess my USE-ME program is worth trotting out as well. I mean anything goes these days, no?

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Markets 15th September 2014

Elevator QE

SAO PAULO | Marcus Nune’s Historinhas- Guest Post by Benjamin Cole | If you ever farted loudly on a crowded elevator, then you know the reaction of most economists to the idea that national debts should be monetized through central bank quantitative easing (QE), aka “printing money.”

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World economy 28th July 2014

In some cases the central bank cannot control inflation…

SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes via Historinhas | …while in others it cannot promote it! Japan falls in the latter category. According to this article in the WSJ “Japan´s price target looks difficult.” The nationwide core consumer price index rose 1.3% from a year earlier in June, after adjustment for a recent sales-tax hike, below a 1.4% increase the previous month, according to government data released Friday. Inflation moderated in May and June due to falling energy prices and a stable yen, which has put the break on growth in import costs.

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Markets 23rd July 2014

The idea that central banks “need a financial stability mandate” keeps coming back

SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes via Historinhas | Even in Sweden, where 4 years ago the Riksbank decided there was “too much debt” and raised rates to “calm people down”. That, as we know, ended in grief and with the head honcho being outvoted (first time that happens) in the last policy committee meeting, when the policy rate was lowered by 50 basis points to 0.25%.

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World economy 7th July 2014

Why waste time with Taylor-Rules?

SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes via Historinhas | That´s what Simon Wren-Lewis does in “Taylor Rules, the ZLB and Euro Diversity”: John Taylor originally suggested his rule as both a good guide to what central banks actually do and also one that “captures the spirit of the recent research”. It has been used ever since as a yardstick by which to measure monetary policy.

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In Europe 12th June 2014

Simon Wren-Lewis and the real asymmetry between monetarists and fiscalists

SAO PAULO | By Mark Sadowski via Marcus Nunes’ Historinhas | Simon Wren-Lewis has written a response to a post by Giles Wilkes in which he addresses the nature of the disagreement between monetarists such as Scott Sumner, David Beckworth and Marcus Nunes, and fiscalists such as Paul Krugman, Simon Wren-Lewis and Jonathan Portes. I want to start in the middle because this is the part I have the biggest disagreement with the following statement.

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World economy 7th June 2014

Monetary policy- the way we were (without revisionist history)

SAO PAULO | By Benjamin Cole via Historinhas | Sadly for Americans, the Fed of 2008 would pull out the 50-year-old playbook and repeat the mistakes of the Fed of the 1950s. Rattled by minor increases in prices, the 2008 Fed stomped on the brakes, bringing on the Great Recession from which the nation has yet to fully recover.

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World economy 16th May 2014

The “Rat Pack” loses one member (Australia)

SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | (Note to generation y: The Rat Pack was the name given to a group of actors led by Frank Sinatra Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr) In 2005 Edward Nelson, at the Research Department of the St Louis Fed, wrote a very interesting paper entitled “Monetary Policy Neglect and the Great Inflation in Canada, Australia and new Zealand”.