During the last two years, the Federal Reserve responded to problems in the financial markets through what I have described as monetary policy using the asset side of the Fed’s balance sheet, replacing its traditional holdings of Treasury securities with a variety of new lending programs and alternative assets. I’ve been taking a look at what effect these operations seem to have had on the problems they were designed to address.
Author Archives: James_Hamilton
Working harder and harder to keep oil production from falling
The challenges for private oil companies to increase oil production are pretty daunting.
Will stimulating nominal aggregate demand solve our problems?
In which I join the ongoing debate on how much we should expect fiscal and monetary stimulus to accomplish.
Not much of a V
The latest auto and employment numbers paint a picture of an economic recovery that remains tepid and potentially fragile.
Home prices stabilized, but…
The S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices registered another month of increase in July. That’s a critical bit of favorable news, since continued declines in home prices would mean further increases in default rates and new stresses on financial institutions.
Federal Reserve reverse repurchases
Here I offer some thoughts on Bloomberg’s account that the Fed has made inquiries with its dealers about the feasibility of a significant increase in the Fed’s reverse repo operations.
Links for 2009-09-25
Tim Duy worries that some FOMC members are overestimating the inflation risk.
Arnold Kling proposes a mackerel theory of value.
The discussion at Cato of monetary policy continues.
Economy improves but concerns remain
Last week we received positive readings for some key economic indicators. But I still see plenty to worry about.
Regulating compensation in the banking sector
I see a good case for this, but also some big things to worry about.
Scott Sumner on the Fed’s mistakes
The Cato Institute is hosting a discussion this month of the extent to which monetary policy may have contributed to our current economic problems. In the lead essay that appeared on Monday, Professor Scott Sumner of Bentley University suggested that the Fed erred in allowing nominal GDP to grow as slowly as it did.
My response
appeared this morning. I agree that faster growth of nominal GDP would have been a good thing, but argue that, particularly if you start the clock in the fall of 2008, the Fed lacked the tools to prevent a decline in nominal GDP.