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Why macroeconomists need to study history
One of the ways that macro differs from micro is that macro is essentially a branch of history. Micro is not. And yet today’s macroeconomists often have not studied monetary history. Marcus Nunes...
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Nick Rowe on the New Keynesian model
Here’s Nick Rowe: I understand how monetary policy would work in that imaginary Canada (at least, I think I do). Increasing the quantity of money (holding the interest rate paid on money constant)...
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Monetary policy counterfactuals are tricky
Rajat asked one of his characteristically probing questions, in the previous post: As you’ve often said with monetary policy, it all depends on the yardstick or counterfactual. With your examples,...
View ArticleJosh Hendrickson reviews The Midas Paradox
Josh Hendrickson has a very good review of my Great Depression book, published in the Journal of Economic History. Here is one part of the review: The role of monetary policy expectations is central...
View ArticleBob Murphy on the deflationary effects of devaluation fears
In a recent post, I quoted from a Josh Hendrickson review of The Midas Paradox, particularly the discussion of the deflationary impact of devaluation fears during the 1930s. I viewed this as a bit of...
View ArticlePost-modern recessions
Classical recessions were often caused by shocks that reduced the natural rate of interest. As market interest rates fell (there was no Fed), the demand for gold increased. Because gold was the...
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Irving Fisher and George Warren
I am currently a bit over half way through an excellent book entitled “American Default“, by Sebastian Edwards. The primary focus of the book is the abrogation of the gold clause in debt contracts,...
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Inflation before the oil shock
Tyler Cowen recently linked to an interesting William Fischel paper from 2016: In the 1970s, unprecedented peacetime inflation, touched off by the oil cartel OPEC, combined with longstanding federal...
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Hu McCulloch on the interwar gold standard
The interwar gold standard is one of the most complex and interesting case studies in all of macroeconomics. I’ve devoted much of my life to studying this issue. It is difficult to wade through all...
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Nothing like the 1960s?
Commenter Michael Sandifer left this comment: One key difference between the current period and ’66 is that inflation is tame. He’s referring to our relatively low inflation: Over the previous 6 years,...
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