I’ve run into quite a bit of confusion in conversations discussing bank reserves, and found occasion to get precise on the usage in recent comments. I thought I’d share it with others. This has been vetted by several who are more worthy than I, so I feel quite confident in offering it up. 1. “Reserve […]

Economists like to say that their discipline is the study of scarcity, or even the science of scarcity. But I’d like to suggest that — acknowledging that it’s a behavioral, social “science” — it’s actually the study of human reaction functions: If X happens, how do people (individually and as groups) react? But unlike other […]

You know the trillion dollars a year of Treasury and GSE bonds that the Fed’s buying up? (And the $3-trillion+ it’s already holding?) It’s driving up bond prices and suppressing yields, right? And if it starts selling them back, it will drive down prices and increase yields, right? The market should be front-running that, right? […]

Some of the keenest monetary thinkers out there, over at FT Alphaville — Izabella Kaminska, Cardiff Garcia, etc. (I’ll even throw in Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge, with qualifications) — have been pointing us for years towards the work of IMF Senior Economist Manmohan Singh on collateral chains in financial markets. He provides wonderfully cogent explanation of […]

In comments here, Mark Sadowski says a lot of thoughtful things, including this: Beckworth is claiming that AD growth has been steady despite fiscal contraction which it has. In fact the standard deviation of the quarterly growth rate in nominal GDP (NGDP) since 2010Q1 is by far the lowest for any 13 quarter period on […]

by Linda Beale Apple’s Tax Rates–just what does Cook’s “way I look at this” mean??? There’s been a good bit in the news lately about the way multinational enterprises like Apple, Google, and many others especially in Big Pharm and Big IP actively reduce their US taxes through offshoring that is offshoring-on-paper-only to a large […]

The NYT offers an editorial on what is becoming mainstream thinking on What’s Next for Social Security? Of course the writing is still short on pointing to the thoroughly researched possibilities for adjusting the program for changing circumstances. The trustees of Social Security recently reported that the retirement system can pay full benefits until 2035, […]

Dean Baker makes what seems to be a stunningly obvious point, one that I haven’t seen discussed anywhere. Condensed and with emphasis added for your consideration: …the value of our [government] debt will plummet if interest rates rise… we could buy back long-term debt issued today at interest rates of less than 2.0 percent for discounts of […]

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: On the Road Again The rest of the week is taken up with a conference, at which I will spend time with health professionals from all 50 states, the professionals including physicians and nurses, executives and managers, lawyers and CPAs, financiers, government regulators, consultants and media. Anyone […]