If the jobs of executives can be done by AI, why do we pay those characters so much?

This is actually something I might do.

Take out "the potential to" and the statement is false. And explaining why there is "potential" is quite difficult.

1/The Fed has confused the markets by the way it speaks to monetary policy in terms of a fed funds rate range, and by how it sets the interest rates on its reverse repo and standing repo facilities. It's silly to argue that recent developments in overnight markets reflect a need for more reserve...

1/First, it is not clear what "ample" is supposed to mean. Second, even if we knew what ample means, it's not clear why ample might be optimal. Third, what "tightness?" What we're seeing is that, consistent with past behavior of overnight markets, there's a point where, given the interest rates...

This paper claims that MMT includes "a well-developed theoretical framework (including mathematical models)" I scrolled through the paper and couldn't find any symbols, save in some national income accounting identities. No "mathematical model" in sight.

Interesting. Waller's speech proposes Fed "payment accounts," which are effectively limited reserve accounts. He doesn't call this stuff central bank digital currency, but clearly the intention is to expand the reach of the Fed in wholesale payments involving the crypo sector.

The Australian government has begun a public education campaign with tips on how to wean children off social media ahead of a world-first national 16-year age limit taking effect.

I was in NYC two weeks ago, and went for a run. The running path by the river in London Ontario is far superior.

Pleased that Peter Howitt has received the Economics Nobel. Peter is from Guelph, Ontario, and started his work with Philippe when he was here, at the University of Western Ontario.

1/What's wrong here? Harford starts this piece by telling us about his experience with an MA program in economics: "Everything was drenched in incomprehensible mathematics — or, to be more honest, maths that I could not comprehend." So, Harford would have trouble in my class - monetary economics...

Glad to know someone thinks of us as an "R&D hub."

This year's Canadian Macro Study Group conference will be held November 14-15 in London Ontario at the University of Western Ontario (a.k.a. Western University). Excellent program organized by Sergio Ocampo and Baxter Robinson. canadianmacro.ca/conferences/...

Huge opportunities here. And don't forget Kitchener-Waterloo, or even.... London Ontario.

"Loving the democratic party elite?" Yes, every time I see Chuck Schumer on the telly, I find it hard to contain myself.

More accurately: "Given measurement error, the Eurozone inflation rate is essentially unchanged."

He'd probably be complaining if everyone agreed with him.

1/There's not much "modern" about a stablecoin. Basically, it's just a bank. The only difference is in the mechanism underlying how stablecoins change ownership, as opposed to how your claim on a bank changes ownership. The former, given current technology, is highly inefficient. And, stablecoins...

1/Typically, students doing a PhD in economics in the U.S. finish in 5 or 6 years, and 6 is much more common than 5. So, this rule effectively bans foreign students in PhD programs in economics. I haven't looked at the numbers, but my impression is that most of the assistant professors hired in...

Charlie Plosser served as a faculty member and Dean of the Business School at the University of Rochester. He served as editor of the Journal of Monetary Economics (with Bob King), and later the President of the Philadelphia Fed. A serious and sensible economist. RIP.

Definitely tells you what all that is really about.

"Some difficulty and volatility between the Canadian government and the U.S government." Right. A category 5 hurricane just went through. Described as some difficulty and volatility in air flow.

In Canada's case, it's not like the UK ever lost it. There are people here who still get excited by the royal family, and Charles is officially the King of Canada. Though he could have in mind emulating DJT by marching British troops around Ottawa so we can throw sandwiches at them.

this guy is savage

"Years of experience show that tariffs do not harm the sellers of goods as much as they harm the buyers... analysts at Goldman Sachs reckon that fully four-fifths of the tariffs have so far been borne by American consumers and firms" www.economist.com/leaders/2025... From The Economist

How could this be in the interest of the other shareholders? Even if you incentivize Musk - and he's already acting like he's satiated - you're diluting the shares of a company running out of steam, and retaining a CEO who apparently is a Nazi.

I would never put Bullard in the clown category. He and Waller are the most qualified in that list.

Well, Jim Bullard would be an excellent choice, but is this serious?

1/Another detail in Miran's proposal is to reduce the power of the New York Fed. Currently, the operational arm of the Fed is in New York - basically, it's the New York Fed that buys and sells assets in the Fed's portfolio, and oversees the portfolio in general (the SOMA Director at the NY Fed is...

1/Other writing by Miran (Fed's presumptive nominee for a Fed Governor position) shows his insufficient grasp of the fundamentals of monetary policy, but this piece reveals something even more dangerous. This is essentially a proposal for a major overhaul of the.. manhattan.institute/article/refo...

1/Well, wrong again. I thought it would be Hassett. But who is Stephen Miran? He has a PhD in Economics from Harvard, and worked with Martin Feldstein, a respectable academic who also worked in the Reagan administration. Miran has worked in the financial industry, and was also affiliated...

Why do economists hate tariffs more than other taxes? Today's newsletter is 6 reasons why tariffs are a terrible way to raise revenue tl;dr they violate all the main results of how to raise revenue efficiently www.economicforces.xyz/p/6-reasons-...

So, if I had been allocating some of my 401K to, say, a fund indexed to the S&P 500, would I effectively have been doing this already, or not?

As usual, you have to ask whether this is the intention of the policy, whether the goal is just to avenge some wrong done to Trump by some egghead in the past, or it's just Stephen Miller getting rid of any traces of EDI.

Exactly.

As far as I can tell, everything should be harder, except my class. 😀

Uhhh what the hell is going on here

"modern day facts and figures"

“Unfathomable amounts of wealth depend on the integrity of the development process behind the release of these statistics” My Q&A with former Fed official David Wilcox following Trump’s firing of the BLS head www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Donald Trump rules out Scott Bessent for Federal Reserve chair on.ft.com/3HkpqqK

1/Three points: (i) Another way to frame this is that the last reported inflation rate is only 1.6 percentage points above target. (ii) A 4% policy rate is still a tight policy. (iii) Under most inflation-targeting monetary policy regimes, past inflation is a bygone. The BoE should only be...

I should add that Ryssdal says "perhaps unpopular opinion," when I think he means "perhaps wrong."

Well, maybe it's obvious why firing the person who runs the BLS is a bad thing. But we live in a specialized world, and these specialized individuals might actually know stuff that non-specialists, even highly-educated ones, might not.

Orwell called this doublespeak, but this is reality, so we can call it Trumpspeak. Claiming you are correcting a problem of data degradation, when your intention is to degrade the data. A good bet is Hassett fills the empty Board seat, and goes on to become FOMC chair.

He's promising to protect the integrity of the data by firing statisticians who follow established methods of data collection and processing whenever those methods yield numbers that don't please the boss.

President Trump fired BLS Commissioner because he thinks revisions to jobs reports for past three months make him look bad. President Cristina Fernandez fired officials at Argentina's National Statistics Institute (INDEC) in 2007 because she wanted lower inflation data. www.yahoo.com/news/article...

Interesting. I had never heard of this before I saw my father, who had dementia, do it. A narrative that is internally consistent, but hard to believe and ultimately fiction, possibly with the odd fact thrown in. The narrator believes the narrative, which grows over time and becomes more embellished

This case is related to another one, where the person was denied re-entry to the U.S. Again, a permanent resident with minor drug offenses. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Has the White House explained why this is a reasonable use of government funds, but the Fed's renovation (which is self-funded) is not?

Have just skimmed the paper, but the measure looks like bullshit. The "model" is certainly not a theory of quantitative easing and why and how it might work.