America’s Most Important Economic Storyteller Is Confused
As somebody who’s paid to tell stories about the economy, I always find it satisfying to assemble data points to produce a compelling pointillist picture about the state of the…
Fed Chair: Aggressive Rate Hikes May Be Needed To Tame Inflation
The U.S. central bank must move “expeditiously” to bring too-high inflation to heel, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Monday, and will, if needed, use bigger-than-usual interest rate hikes to do…
The Fed Signals Likely Interest-Rate Hike in March to Curb Inflation
The Federal Reserve signaled Wednesday that it will likely raise interest rates in March as part of a monetary policy shift to temper an over-heating economy and soaring inflation. With inflation…
Twin Threats To Financial Market Security
It has long been an open secret that the Biden administration has adopted, hook line and sinker, the hard-line positions of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Nowhere is…
The Ghost of Christmas Inflation
Inflation continues to surge. From its inflection point in February 2021 to last month, the US consumer price index has grown 6% – an 8% annualized rate. The underlying cause is no…
Monetary and Inflationary Traps
Price increases in the United States are spreading across goods and services, and inflation also can be seen in broad-based business inputs such as transportation, energy, and increasingly labor. How…
The Dangers of Endless Quantitative Easing
Inflation readings in the United States have shot up in recent months. Labor markets are extremely tight. In one recent survey, 46% of small-business owners said they could not find workers…
Recent Inflation Figures Should Not Be Ignored by Policymakers
The sharp increase in consumer prices this spring may be a blip but may also be a sign that inflation is returning as a chronic problem. For those of us…
Milton Friedman’s Revenge
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen got into trouble Tuesday for telling the truth. That morning, at a conference sponsored by the Atlantic, she raised the possibility that one day the Federal Reserve…