zero interest rate policy

The Fed will use these power tools during the next big recession

Summary: Six years after the recession ended, we are due for another recession. Many experts say that the government is “out of bullets” to fight the next severe downturn. That’s quite false because 2008 marked the start of a new era in which our leaders manage the business cycles using strange and awesome tools. We’ll …

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Richard Koo gives a “Post-QE forecast: sunny, cloudy, or stormy?”

Summary: Prosperity, perhaps even survival, in the 21st century might require learning which experts we should listen to. In economics its a short list, if we limit it to people who have understood large aspects of the great recession and the aftermath.  Richard Koo certainly deserves to make that short list. Here he tells us …

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The easy way to understand unconventional monetary policy

Summary:  It’s difficult to describe the magnitude of the monetary policy experiments now running around the world, most especially in China, USA, and Japan. At the end are links to a dozen posts attempting to do so with words and numbers. Today we do it with pictures. . The monetary stimulus programs running around the …

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Larry Summers gives us the bad news. Worse, the only solution is more of the same.

Summary: Larry Summers speech last week was, IMO, a pivotal moment. It forced economists to look at the US from a new perspective, considering things that had been heretical. The previous post, Are we following Japan into an era of slow growth, even stagnation? sketched out his bold speech. Today we look at the text, with …

Larry Summers gives us the bad news. Worse, the only solution is more of the same. Read More »

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