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…
Ever since Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell described cyclical or COVID-related elements of inflation as "transitory" (an ambiguous phrase now retired), critics repeatedly seized on year-to-year changes in price indexes as evidence that inflation was instead accelerating every month. As I have noted before, however, the stubborn…
Starting with the April 2021 release, virtually every monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) report has indicated some form of abnormally high inflation. For instance, the April CPI rose 4.2 percent over the previous 12 months, the largest year-to-year increase since the period ending September 2008. Similarly, the…