Monthly Archives: October 2015

ICYMI Ben Chu hosted this on the Independent website.

The web has been full of Philips curve sarcasm and trolling recently, following comments from the Fed about the uncertainties in the relation between the output and unemployment gap and inflation. But those not immersed in this should realise that … Continue reading →

Mark Carney extolled the benefits of staying in the EU in a speech delivered alongside a staff report explaining how exit would affect the ability of the BoE to deliver monetary and financial stability. Repeating a theme familiar to readers … Continue reading →

Here PK recommends, working through – pretty uncontroversially – the logic of the standard New Keynesian model, that Japan should try another burst of expansionary fiscal policy to raise inflation.  But that it should actually do it with enough force … Continue reading →

JM writes in the FT about things to be considered under the rubric of a mandate review, conducted for him by Danny Blanchflower, John Hall, Simon Wren Lewis and Adam Posen.  He writes that ‘operational independence’ is ‘sacrosanct’, which is … Continue reading →

Steve writes wide-rangingly, taking issue with several aspects of empirical macroeconomics. Steve goes for the modern VAR literature, which seeks to identify monetary policy shocks, and measures that these shocks have effects on real variables, and that their effects on … Continue reading →

Duncan Weldon alerted Twitter to this very nice think piece by my old boss, now at BP. One of the points he makes is how new reserve discoveries have been outpacing oil consumption.  And he uses that to question whether  … Continue reading →

Two comments on this piece by Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph.  Jeremy remarks: “there is no purpose to law without sanctions, and this one appears to have none beyond the extra capacity for embarrassment if it is broken.” First, I … Continue reading →

Ultimately I am against this charter for the same reason that I am against moves to legislate that the Fed should follow, or be monitored relative to a monetary policy rule. Macroeconomic fiscal policy is, crudely, about weighing the demands … Continue reading →

JP comments on my last post commenting on his post, and this post responds. He notes that while a technological innovation that reduces the need for money, or the liquidity and convenience services that come from holding money, would have … Continue reading →