SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | The strong counteracting monetary policy response to permanent Social Security benefit increases likely explains why their effects were relatively short-lasting and did not spread to broader economic indicators, say Christy and David Romer.
SAO PAOLO | By Marcus Nunes | In his recent post at Econlog Scott Sumner writes “Questions that have no answers”: There are some questions that have no answers. One example is the question: “Was monetary policy too expansionary during the housing boom?” The only sensible answer is “it depends.” It’s not clear what the Fed was trying to do during this period.
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes via Historinhas | Recently I showed this chart [see above] to press the point against the conventional wisdom that the purpose of the sequence of QEs was to lower long term rates.
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | Investors betting on fresh easing measures from the European Central Bank (ECB) were left empty-handed Thursday, propelling the euro to a one-week high against the dollar.
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes via Historinhas | Even if all economic indicators suggest that the ECB should cut interest rates at today’s meeting, it seems unlikely to do so, and follow Germany -its main shareholder- instead. I tried to imagine what would be of the US if North Dakota yielded the same power over the Fed as Germany does over the ECB.
NEW YORK | By Benjamin Cole Fisher via Marcus Nunes’ Historinhas |Dallas Fed president wants the institution to stomp on the brakes and quit Quantitative Easing (QE) now, and preferably yesterday. Indeed, Fisher proudly told his audience he would have been a bulwark against QE, if he could have been.
SAO PAOLO | By Marcus Nunes | Shinzo Abe was elected in December 2012 on a promise to revive growth and put an end to deflation. How have his promises ‘performed’ one year after taking power? The ‘performance’ of the so-called Abenomics will be illustrated by a set of charts.
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | According to Alan Goolsbee, as Mr. Bernanke prepares to depart at the end of January and the Fed has initiated the exit-strategy countdown with the start of tapering, it is time to take stock of the QE Era—and time for the critics to admit they were wrong.
SAO PAULO| By Marcus Nunes|When the Fed ‘forgets’ its function of keeping overall nominal stability you may get different instabilities. If, as in the 1960s, it becomes mostly concerned with unemployment the result will be rising inflation.
SAO PAOLO | By Marcus Nunes | The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) twitted a version of the chart below which purports to show that if only fiscal policy had not been so austere, the economy would be much further on the way to recovery.