One of the challenging things about my job here at Cato is that it calls for me, not only to make the case for monetary alternatives, but to comment on current Fed policies. Why is that such a challenge? Because, so far as many of my fellow…
The winter 2020 edition of the Cato Journal is now available online! Articles in this issue discuss a range of topics—from the proper size of government, to the relationship between tariffs and monetary policy, to the life and legacy of Frederick Douglass. Below, you’ll find summaries of each article, with links to the full-text versions embedded in the titles.
From President Trump lobbing invectives against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Twitter to progressives clamoring for the Federal Reserve to use monetary policy to finance social projects, our central bank’s independence looks increasingly tenuous. Recently, Chairman Powell called for an internal "strategic review" of how…
Improving the Monetary System Since 1983, the Cato Institute’s Annual Monetary Conference has brought together leading scholars and policymakers to discuss important issues in the conduct of monetary policy and steps that might be taken to improve the existing system. The conferences have also considered ideas for…
"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand." (Attributed to Milton Friedman) While my fellow Fed-watchers have had their eyes firmly glued to the repo-market for several weeks now, I've been preoccupied with…