A lot of ink was spilled last month over President Trump's criticism of the Fed raising interest rates. Observers worried that those criticisms meant the President was prepared to directly meddle with U.S. monetary policy. But so far, at least, there’s no evidence that any such meddling has…
In April 2018 Congressional Budget Office issued a report on the state of the federal budget in light of the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” enacted in December 2017, the “Bipartisan Budget Act” enacted in February 2018, and the “Consolidated Appropriations Act” enacted in March. The CBO…
The Winter 2018 edition of the Cato Journal is out! For 38 years, the Cato Journal has published articles by leading scholars that explore libertarian public policy ideas. The current edition features articles on the welfare state, school choice, and — most importantly for loyal Alt-M readers…
It is well known that the Federal Reserve System expanded its assets more than four-fold during and after the 2007-09 financial crisis by making massive purchases of mortgage-backed securities and Treasuries. The balance sheet has not returned to normal since. Total Fed assets stand today at $4.45…
Back in July 2015 I reminded Alt-M readers of a paper I presented at the 2012 Mont Pelerin Society meetings in Prague, as part of a session in which Otmar Issing, one of the euro's architects, also took part. As I remarked in that last post, although Mr. Issing…