Earlier this week, while most of us were still trying to wrap our heads around the Fed's emergency lending plans, consumer advocate Ralph Nader fired-off an irate letter to its Chair, Jay Powell. Nader's letter didn't take issue with any of those plans. Instead, it accused Powell…
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…
As The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and several other news outlets reported recently, although it has managed to avoid setting off another taper tantrum like that of 2013, the Fed is having a bad case of unwind jitters, thanks to unanticipated tightening in the…
Prior to 2008, the Fed could accelerate or decelerate inflation by expanding or contracting the monetary base and therefore bank reserves with open market operations and/or with repo loans to dealers. Since 2008, however, the Fed has paid interest on excess reserves equal to or even higher…