Sure, you can read the posts here at OTE, and be [choose as many as apply: better informed, entertained, annoyed, put to sleep]. And/or, you can listen to the latest episode of OTE podcast while you’re exercising, cooking, chilling, etc. Get it on SoundCloud, iTunes, Stitchr, Google Play, or TuneIn.
This episode is all about the Federal Reserve, which is meeting as we speak, and will almost certainly decide to bump up the interest rate they control. Ben and I talk to Kate Davidson (from the Wall Street Journal) about the Fed’s rationale for its interest-rate-raising campaign and to Ady Barkan (from the Fed Up Campaign) about what the Fed should do to up-weight the interests of those who’ve been left behind, even as we close in on full employment.
Given how obscure this sort of conversation can get, I was struck by the clarity and demystification of both Kate and Ady’s responses to our queries.
If I say so myself, our musical interlude for this episode is particularly enlightened.
And finally, the joke at the end of the episode is original! I’ve told it to lots of people and everyone under 15 thinks it’s hilarious.
All that in 25 minutes!
Enjoy…
Hamilton’s idea of a 80/20 split between private ownership and public ownership of the central banking system was a good idea at the time. Our recent history has proven that our private financiers have an outweighed effect on Fed policy for modern times.
Balance is hard, and changing long traditions for new situations is even harder. In the same vein, attempting to apply a system that worked in uniting an early USA is not going to unite the world. I think some people were hoping it would, but the two problems are fundamentally different and require different solutions.
Yes, ‘getting back to normal’ was always the incentive to raise rates prematurely. Long, drawn-out periods of abnormal conditions are just uncomfortable, but the leader’s discomfort is nothing compared to the victims’.
I laughed!
Great music!
They aren’t raising rates prematurely, they were to slow. After September, there won’t be another hike for at least 6 months.
I would ignore current “inflation” data. YrY energy prices explain it and CPI is 2.2% yry. Where is the weakness people? Hedonically useless stats like “trimmed” CPI or “Core” CPI are a waste of time. The Clinton era ruined them and made them easily manipulated by sector price drops(hello tech sales) that may only account for 10% of all sales.
This is true of BLS non-sup wages. Due to the fact 2017 energy prices have not grown like March -May did last year, that causes them to drop, distorting the true picture. They will just be forced to raise them to 3% where the real wage price is at.
We need better data. Lazy data it is.