Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s decision in December to raise the federal funds target by 25 basis points, to 2.25–2.50 percent, and to continue raising rates at least twice in the new year, upset financial markets. The Dow and S&P each dropped at least 8.7 percent, logging their…
In my last post I wrote about the lawsuit TNB USA Inc has filed against the New York Fed, which has refused to grant the would-be bank a Master Account. I argued that, despite its name (TNB stands for "The Narrow Bank"), and despite what some commentators…
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…
If you've spent much time at all on these pages, you know that my favorite hobby-horse for several years now has been the Federal Reserve's policy of paying interest on (banks') excess reserves (IOER) at an above-market rate. By adopting that policy in October 2008, the Fed…