Category Archives: Regulatory Policy
Happy Birthday and a Terrific New Book by Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell has a new book. It is terrific and timely. It is called Charter Schools and Their Enemies, officially published today, June 30, 2020, which happens to be his 90th birthday. Happy Birthday, Tom, and thank you writing such … Continue reading
Posted in Regulatory Policy, Teaching Economics
Deepak Lal and Market-Oriented Policies
Deepak Lal, an outspoken champion of freedom and market‐oriented policies throughout the world, died yesterday in London. I heard the sad news from my friend Ed Feulner who called on the phone tonight, and I just read the beautiful tribute … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Crisis, Regulatory Policy, Teaching Economics
Now They’re All Saying “It’s Time to Write Chapter 14 into Law”
Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee held an important hearing entitled “Big Bank Bankruptcy: 10 Years After Lehman Brothers.” Originally scheduled for October, but postponed because of the debate over the Kavanaugh confirmation, the hearing concentrated on legislation that would create … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Crisis, Regulatory Policy
Stiglitz, Summers, Secular Stagnation, and the Supply Side
Joe Stiglitz recently published an attack, “The Myth of Secular Stagnation,” on Larry Summers’ hypothesis of secular stagnation, a revival of a term used by Alvin Hansen decades ago. Larry first presented his secular stagnation hypothesis at a conference jointly … Continue reading
Posted in Regulatory Policy, Slow Recovery, Stimulus Impact
Reserve Balances and the Fed’s Balance Sheet in the Future
An important part of the Fed’s normalization policy is to reduce its holdings of securities and thereby reserve balances—deposits of banks at the Fed—used to finance these holdings. As I argued when quantitative easing began in 2009, this reduction should … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Crisis, Monetary Policy, Regulatory Policy
It’s Time to Pass the Financial Institutions Bankruptcy Act
Today the House Judiciary Subcommittee lead by Tom Marino held a hearing on the Financial Institution Bankruptcy Act (FIBA) which lays out in clear legislative language the “Chapter 14 type” reform proposals that Stanford’s Hoover Resolution Project have been working … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Crisis, Regulatory Policy
Economic Policy Explains Growth Conundrum
“Growth Conundrum” sets the theme for the many fascinating articles in the latest issue of the IMF’s quarterly magazine Finance and Development which includes an opening essay by Nicholas Crafts and a profile of Kristin Forbes. I was asked to write … Continue reading
Posted in Regulatory Policy, Slow Recovery
Restoring Prosperity
During the past two days, economists from around the world gathered at the Hoover Institution to focus on the crucial problem of how to restore prosperity. They took stock of lessons from past experiences in the US and Europe, and … Continue reading
Posted in Regulatory Policy, Slow Recovery
A World Cup in the Battle of Ideas
Markus Brunnermeier, Harold James and Jean-Pierre Landau have just published a fascinating book, The Euro and the Battle of Ideas, in which they bring together their respective skills in economic theory, economic history and economic policy to bear on one … Continue reading
Take Off the Muzzle and the Economy Will Roar
In his Saturday Wall Street Journal essay “Why the Economy Doesn’t Roar Anymore”—illustrated with a big lion with its mouth shut—Marc Levinson offers the answer that the “U.S. economy isn’t behaving badly. It is just being ordinary.” But there is … Continue reading
Posted in Fiscal Policy and Reforms, Regulatory Policy, Slow Recovery
