Minimum Wage Hikes Part III: Minimum Wages and Federal Assistance
Continuing the thoughts from the post I had on Valentine’s Day, I wanted to address a few of the questions I received surrounding the proposed hike to the federal minimum wage. During his State of the...
View ArticleLive from Des Moines, It’s Chicago Fed President Charles Evans
The President of Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago came to speak at the CFA Society of Iowa Strategy Dinner last night and I was lucky enough to attend. Although, we did not learn anything really new...
View ArticleWhat Ever Happened with the Payroll Tax Increase?
As you may recall, earlier this year, payroll taxes in the U.S. went up by 2% and I discussed how that tax increase could potentially affect spending. Well, we’re done with first quarter, so how have...
View ArticleFed Conference in Hotlanta: Part 2 – Sweating the Details on Regulatory...
Continuing my previous thoughts on last week’s Atlanta Federal Reserve Financial Markets Conference, I thought I’d cover another of the conference’s big themes: the efficiency of the regulatory system....
View ArticleCoding Errors and Challenging Assumptions: Why the Debate over...
Last week, the economics blogosphere was ablaze with commentary on an economics paper from 2010 called “Growth in the Time Debt.” The paper was by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, both of Harvard,...
View ArticleComplex Systems, Collapse, and Virtual Connections at the Milken Global...
There’s been a lot of talk (and blogging) this week about the Milken Global Conference that’s going on in Los Angeles. I wasn’t able to attend in person this year, but, after looking at their website,...
View Article2 Indices: The Battle over How Bad Inflation Isn’t
If you’re looking for a gauge on U.S. inflation, you’ve got two primary options. There’s CPI – the consumer price index. And there’s PCE – personal consumption expenditures. Both CPI and PCE serve as...
View ArticleTwo Holds, Nine Cuts, One Hike – Now What?
Monetary accommodation was on the rise in May. Of the twelve major bank meetings during the month, nine resulted in cuts, two central banks held policy steady, and only one actually increased rates to...
View ArticleThe Legacy of the Debt Crisis – 2013 CREATE Research Report
The 2013 Principal Global Investors/CREATE-Research report is due to be launched on June 17th. Each year, a survey focus is chosen after canvassing the views of thought leaders in the investment value...
View ArticleTwo Takes on the Taper Timeline: Fed Governors from Missouri Have Different...
Did you know that Missouri is the only state that’s home to two Federal Reserve banks? There’s one in St. Louis and there’s one in Kansas City, Missouri over on the western edge. And while KC and St....
View ArticleEmerging Market Slowing Doesn’t Mean It’s Time to Bail Out
Imagine you’re aboard a flight that’s on its final approach into the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, India. For most of the flight, the plane, a 787, has been traveling at about 903...
View ArticleTaper Turns to Vapor – The Fed Backs Off Ending QE (video post)
At their September meeting, the Federal Reserve surprised markets by maintaining their program of monthly Treasury and agency MBS purchases. So the taper is again “on hold.” Our economist Robin...
View ArticleWith Fed Tapering, It’s Not Just What They Say, But How They Say It
Tapering is coming. And markets know it. The mere thought that tapering of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing (QE) program was due in September was enough to push many markets and currencies...
View ArticleMinimum Wage Hikes (Repost)
On the occasion of the scheduled fast food-workers strike today (Thursday, December 5), I thought I’d dip into the vault and repost something from earlier this year on a proposal to hike the federal...
View ArticleSanta’s 2014 Economic Naughty and Nice Lists
He’s making a list…because Santa’s a statistics wonk. He’s checking it twice…because Santa has more than enough time on his hands. He’s going to find out who’s naughty and nice…because Santa is...
View ArticleTreating Economic Pessimism – Fight the Scourge of Post Crisis Relapse Disorder
Do you find yourself waking every morning, expecting to read about another U.S. recession? Do you the words “economic recovery” leave you feeling anxious and apprehensive? Do you find that you prefer...
View ArticleComplex Systems, Collapse, and Virtual Connections at the Milken Global...
There’s been a lot of talk (and blogging) this week about the Milken Global Conference that’s going on in Los Angeles. I wasn’t able to attend in person this year, but, after looking at their website,...
View ArticleChina: Which Direction for the Yuan?
I’ve recently had some conversations on the idea that China is intentionally weakening their currency, the yuan (aka the RMB), in an effort to put some support under economic growth that’s slowing...
View ArticleDon’t Judge a GDP Report by Its Headline
From the initial estimate of first-quarter GDP to the second one released today (May 29), we moved from stagnating economic activity (0.1% rate of growth) to a contraction, a 1% decline to be exact....
View ArticleChina: Will Inflation Information Lead to Easing or Squeezing?
Monetary and fiscal policies seem to be changing in China. The country’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), and their main banking regulator, the China Banking Regulatory Commission...
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