covid crisis Archives

Economic History, Financial Markets, Legal Analysis, Money & Politics, News, The Fed & Central Banks

Ending the Fed's Emergency Lending Facilities: Mnuchin v. Waters

James Dorn/December 10, 2020December 9, 2020 /1 Comment

On November 19, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that he would sunset five of the Federal Reserve's emergency lending programs at year-end: the Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility, Secondary Market CCF, Municipal Liquidity Facility, Main Street Lending Program, and Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF). His decision,…

That New Deal fiscal policy contributed little to recovery from the Great Depression, and probably contributed to the setback of 1937-8.

Booms & Busts, Economic History, Inflation & Deflation, Money & Politics, News

The New Deal and Recovery, Part 3: The Fiscal Stimulus Myth

George Selgin/June 29, 2020January 11, 2021 /12 Comments

"[The COVID-19 crisis] wouldn't be the first time America has resorted to large-scale fiscal stimulus in a peacetime emergency. The New Deal of the 1930s, a response to the Great Depression, is probably the most far-reaching example." (Katia Dmitrieva, "The Times America Went Big and Flooded Economy…

Banking Regulation, Events, Financial Markets, Money & Politics, News

Paycheck Protection Program: Who Lent to Whom, and Where?

Diego Zuluaga/June 18, 2020June 18, 2020 /1 Comment

It's been 11 weeks since Congress passed the CARES Act, which, among its many other provisions, established the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Nearly three-quarters of U.S. small businesses have so far availed themselves of this program. But it turns out that fewer small businesses got a PPP…

Banking Regulation, Booms & Busts, Economic History, Economic Thought, Money & Politics, News

The New Deal and Recovery, Part 1: The Record

George Selgin/June 16, 2020January 11, 2021 /9 Comments

"Under the New Deal, the US economy grew at rapid rates, even for an economy in recovery." (Eric Rauchway, The Money Makers, p. 100.) Before I start telling you what "the New Deal" did and didn't do, I had better make clear what I mean by the…

Banking Regulation, Booms & Busts, Economic History, Economic Thought, Money & Politics, News

The New Deal and Recovery: A New Alt-M Series

George Selgin/June 12, 2020January 11, 2021 /9 Comments

(The response to a recent Twitter string of mine, concerning a column on the New Deal by Noah Smith, mentioned below, suggests that many people would like to learn more about critical assessments of the New Deal by economists and economic historians. With their interest in mind,…