Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Midweek Market Monetarist Links and Summaries - 3/26/14

The Fed "inches" away from unemployment as policy benchmark and moves (!) towards...towards...
(Scott Sumner) "A wide range of information"
If someone wants to get through the morass of non solutions, is that boring, politically impossible or both?
The policy that must not be discussed  Also, the pertinent Econlog link
Low interest rates (can) create an expanding marketplace (demand for money), where a fixed monetary base would lead to deflation in the aggregate. Of course, market "certainties" assist this process. Low interest rates are deflationary (holding the base constant)
Giving the Fed the benefit of the doubt: Suppose the Fed always aims for 2% inflation
Money matters (as measured activity) when it fulfills functions in the marketplace...not when it is "resting" in a bank account. The definition of money doesn't matter (and there are no "wrong" definitions)
Currency still has a vital role: Our monetary system is becoming increasingly primitive
Perhaps the upcoming speaking engagements might even do some good: Now that Ben Bernanke is free to speak his mind...

Just the discussion as to taper, has increased  long term inflation expectations (Marcus Nunes) http://thefaintofheart.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/what-should-have-been-done/ 
Needed: a more diligent FOMC - http://thefaintofheart.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/a-dove-dissent/
Where is the wage inflation? http://thefaintofheart.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/inane-comments/
Kevin Sheedy notes the contractual benefits of nominal targeting:  http://thefaintofheart.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/simply-and-cogently-argued/
This paper on long term unemployment received considerable attention at the Brookings Conference:
http://thefaintofheart.wordpress.com/2014/03/21/9938/
If only Japan's authorities had not focused on inflation:
http://thefaintofheart.wordpress.com/2014/03/21/the-timidity-is-embedded-in-the-model/
Inflation targeting? http://thefaintofheart.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/its-in-their-dna/
Marcus responds to a post by Scott at Econloghttp://thefaintofheart.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/bubble-mania/

"Oddly enough, most economists are not really educated to do forecasting." (LarsChristensen) Part I of what promises to be an interesting series - http://marketmonetarist.com/2014/03/25/a-framework-for-applied-macroeconomic-forecasting-part-1/

David Beckworth is in general agreement with this Abenomics paper:
http://macromarketmusings.blogspot.com/2014/03/abenomics-at-brookings-institution.html

James Pethokoukis highlights an incisive article from Robert Bruska:
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/03/we-are-back-in-the-land-of-discretion-rules-did-not-work-because-the-fed-set-the-wrong-rules/

Nick Rowe explains an international macroeconomics dynamic:
http://worthwhile.typepad.com/worthwhile_canadian_initi/2014/03/alpha-banks-beta-banks-fixed-exchange-rates-market-shares-and-the-money-multiplier.html

Everyone is looking for a takeaway on labor market slack (Evan Soltas)
http://esoltas.blogspot.com/2014/03/slacking-off.html

Why no date set, for a vote on the still available three seats for Board of Governors?
http://dajeeps.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/harry-reid-needs-to-get-fed-bog-nominations-to-the-senate-floor-pronto/
Of course, there may be good reason why the votes are still delayed...
http://dajeeps.wordpress.com/2014/03/22/touche-bankers-arent-in-control-of-the-fomc/

Justin Irving has been working on an updated version of Efficient Forecast:
http://economicsophisms.com/2014/03/19/yellens-effect-on-ngdp-expectations/

"It's the liquidity trap, stupid!" http://uneconomical.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/but-everybody-knows-you-cant-devalue-at-the-zlb/
How has the inflation rate fallen, when AD is growing faster?  http://uneconomical.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/inflation-inflation-1-7-inflation/

David Glasner's take on the recent BOE article:
http://uneasymoney.com/2014/03/21/the-irrelevance-of-qe-as-explained-by-three-bank-of-england-economists/

Also of interest:

"...only 5 percent of large federal IT projects in the last decade fully succeeded." http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/03/22/sinkhole-of-bureaucracy/?hpi

Don Boudreaux gets it: Who Licenses the Licensers

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