I’m not trying to pull anyone out of the holiday spirit but you ought to know about this nifty bit of “carry trade” the banks have going right now, as per this piece from the WSJ. Since the Fed is now paying 0.50% interest on bank reserves held in their vaults—this is one way they’re… Read more
Archive for the ‘Financial Markets’ Category
What’s holding back US GDP? (hint: it’s not the Fed rate hike)
The US economy is posting solid numbers in important places: GDP is consistently growing around a trend of slightly north of 2 percent, we’re adding around 200,000 jobs per month, which is more than enough to put downward pressure on the remaining slack in the job market. It’s true that wage growth and especially inflation… Read more
Here’s why we need the “conflict of interest” rule and why journalists need to report on it.
The NYT has a great piece on a whistle-blower at JP Morgan, who tried to blow the whistle on financial advisers that were putting their own interests ahead of their clients. Yet somehow, the piece fails to mention the Obama administration’s proposed conflict of interest rule, designed to address precisely this problem. That omission is particularly… Read more
“What It’s Worth:” Strengthening the financial health of families and communities
I recently contributed a chapter to this book “What It’s Worth” on ways to strengthen the financial well-being of families and communities that are too often left behind in opportunity-zapping ways. Some of these economic barriers relate to jobs, wages, and incomes, but a lot of them derive from lack of access to credit markets,… Read more
When safety gets dangerous. Book review of Foolproof, by Greg Ip.
[What with the holiday season upon us, perhaps you’re looking for economic books for someone who likes that sort of thing, or, passively aggressively, for someone who doesn’t. Either way, I’ll try in the next few days to scratch out reviews of some of the econ-related books I enjoyed this year, starting with this great… Read more