(The first of an essay in 3 installments.) In The Money Makers, his 2015 book on the New Deal and its aftermath, Eric Rauchway says that FDR "conducted an active monetary and fiscal program of recovery…working along lines suggested by Keynes." His book's subtitle in turn declares…
Building a bridge is costly: It takes labor and machinery and raw materials that have alternative uses. Does it follow that building it is a waste? No. Waste occurs when the cost incurred exceeds the benefit attained. Cost greater than zero does not imply cost greater than…
(As the Fed is once again planning to unwind its balance sheet, the size of which doubled as a result of its COVID-19-crisis Quantitative Easing, we think it worthwhile to draw your attention to a 2017 exchange, on the fiscal implications of such an unwind, between two…
Twice now, on this forum back in 2013, and on Twitter more recently (see here and here), I've taken Yale economics professor Gary Gorton's publications to task for misrepresenting the historical record of private currency systems. In particular, I've criticized him for claiming, on the basis of evidence…
The Fed's long-awaited report on central bank digital currencies is finally out. Although the report makes it clear that the Fed has no immediate plans to issue a digital currency, it does point to the approach the Fed would be inclined to take were it to do…