Author Archives: James_Hamilton

2015 Econbrowser NCAA tournament winner

Congratulations to Joseph, winner of this year’s Econbrowser NCAA tournament challenge. Even though the championship game has yet to be played, using high-level mathematics I have deduced that no one can catch Joseph’s lead, no matter who wins Monday’s game. Hats off to Joseph, Vivian Darkbloom and many others of you who answered, yes, Wisconsin could beat Kentucky.

Two number one seeds meet in the finals, just as I predicted. Unfortunately, I had the wrong pair!

Fed moves the markets

As widely expected, at Wednesday’s FOMC meeting the Federal Reserve dropped its statement that “the Committee judges that it can be patient in beginning to normalize the stance of monetary policy”, the magic formula that many observers had thought would open the way for a hike in interest rates at the Fed’s June meeting. But the yield on a 10-year U.S. Treasury bond dropped 10 basis points immediately following the FOMC release.
Continue reading