Where or When

Where or When

The first thing they teach you at economist school is that you can either predict where an indicator is going, or you can predict when it will change, but you cannot do both and still be right. As we are deep into the season of predictions there are plenty of examples...
We Should Have Seen This Coming?

We Should Have Seen This Coming?

37,000 banks, 5,000 bank failures, 158 years. That’s the stuff of dreams, if you are a researcher at the New York Federal Reserve. Liberty Street, the NY Fed blog, has just published a series of excellent posts about what this treasure trove of data can tell us about...
Agree Now, Pay Later

Agree Now, Pay Later

The rule of the conferences of the parties to the Paris Agreement (COPs) is that nobody leaves until an agreement is reached, which of course ensures an outcome, but not necessarily an outcome anybody wants. The deal that was reached in Baku, Azerbaijan is that by...
Zero Elasticity

Zero Elasticity

No, we’re not talking about the waistband on your sweatpants, but rather the tongue-twister of: If the Fed quantitatively tightens, and no bank misses the funds, does that mean the Fed can keep tightening? The short answer is yes, and let’s unpack that just a tad...
Back to Black

Back to Black

We most often think about inflation and its first cousin, interest rate, as a pair of high-pitched teenagers on eternal spring break who could really use a hug and a good night’s sleep to calm a bit down. No? That’s just me? But in some other places in the world, the...