Knowledge Problem in Central Banking – Part II
The previous post presented Hayek’s knowledge problem in the context of the economic calculation debate under socialism. We discussed the distinction (sometimes overlooked) between information and knowledge. To sum up, information is objective data suc …
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Knowledge Problem in Central Banking – Part I
In my previous posts, Andreas Hoffmann and I discussed the problem of unintended consequences in monetary policy, particularly as applied to the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank in the context of the 2008 crisis. This post tackles a r …
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The Inflation Tax
Can you name an official at a major central bank who expresses worries that inflation is now, or soon will be, too high? Can you identify any financial publication–even the Wall Street Journal–that does not report that recent inflation data have bee …
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The Regression Theorem: In Light of Bitcoin
Contra Mises, explicit coordination might be used to launch an intrinsically worthless item. Such a view is in line with standard models of money employed by economists today. Coordination also seems to have played a role in launching bitcoin.
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Unintended Monetary Policy Effects – Tale II: ECB Crisis Policies
The Federal Reserve’s (Fed) and European Central Bank’s (ECB) policy responses to the recent financial disasters offer two tales of unintended consequences. Our previous post outlined the undesired effects of the Fed’s policies. In this post, we sugges …
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The Regression Theorem: Misconceptions
Four misconceptions of the regression theorem, explained.
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Money in Illiberalism
A liberal society is governed by the principles of private property and freedom of contract, under the aegis of a nondiscriminatory rule of law. In such a society, money enables economic actors to coordinate their activities. Money allows producers a …
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The Monetary Policy Blinders
I just read Ben Bernanke’s “The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis.” The book was actually published in 2013, and it contains his 2012 lectures at George Washington University. It contains four well written lectures that cover the history of the …
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Cantillon Effects and Money Neutrality
Money neutrality is a key principle in monetary economics. As might seem obvious, the amount of goods that can be produced depends on the availability of factors of production (such as capital and labor) and on technological knowledge.
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Money in Liberalism
One feature of a liberal society is that its institutions, and especially its formal institutions with coercive backing, are bound by a nondiscriminatory rule of law, and work to protect the sanctity of property and contract for all persons. In such a …
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Fed’s Balance Sheet, IOR, and Uncertainty
It seems likely that in the coming months monetary policy discussion will start focusing on the problem of shrinking the Fed’s balance sheet. A particular challenge of shrinking the Fed’s balance sheet is that of discontinuing the policy of paying inte …
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The Central-Bank Trap: the Real Price of Cheap Money
This piece originally appeared in World Economic Forum At the time of writing, the pace of expansion of the main central banks in the world exceeds $200 billion per month. In fact, in the first four months of 2017, central-bank asset purchases have sur …
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