Category Nick Rowe
Mark Carney to the Bank of England
You might think I have a lot to say about this. (A top UK newspaper just emailed asking me to write something.) I don't. I have very little to say. And what I do have to say is fairly obvious. I think Britain needs him more than Canada does, because the British economy is in […]
Elasticity, slope, scale, and collusion
Every year I teach "elasticity". And every year the students ask "Why not talk about "slope" instead?". They are familiar with "slope", but "elasticity" is a new concept. Why do we teach a new concept, if an old familiar concept would do just as well? [For non-economists: the slope of a demand curve is the […]
Precautionary taxation vs tax-smoothing – on paying down the debt
Bob Murphy is arguing with Steve Landsburg over whether the debt/GDP ratio should be (slowly, eventually) reduced. So I have to join in. Plus, (with my Carleton colleague Vivek Dehejia) I actually published a paper once on this very topic (unfortunately not available online) (link here thanks to Keshav Srinivasan). (Just to forestall some comments, […]
Bond vigilante attack = bursting the bond bubble = target NGDP
The title says it all. There's not much to add. "Bond vigilante attack" is just another name for "bursting the bond bubble". And loosening monetary policy would do that.
Waiting for the bond vigilantes
Paul Krugman is right if he is talking about a small attack by the bond vigilantes. It's a good thing, because it increases Aggregate Demand, which is what the US economy needs. But too much of a good thing will be a bad thing. A large attack by the bond vigilantes would be a bad […]
Advice for new Teaching Assistants
This is based on a short talk I have given several times to new TAs (mostly new graduate students) at Carleton. It's very basic. I think it should work for most subjects, not just economics. (Though maybe not as well for science and engineering where TAs run labs?). I think it should work for most […]
Forward guidance, borrowing degrees of freedom, and the inflation target horizon
This is something I do not understand very well. I'm writing this to try to help me think about it more clearly. Eight times a year, at each Fixed Announcement Date, the Bank of Canada does two things: it announces a target for the overnight rate until the next FAD; it provides some "forward guidance" […]
Dumb econometrics questions/bleg on forecast probabilities
I'm bad at econometrics. I've got a couple of simple questions, that ought to have a simple answer. Noah Smith's post (HT Mark Thoma) reminded me of it. There are probably other students at the back of the econometrics class who don't know the answer either, so I'm going to ask for all of us.
“Cyclically-adjusted deficit” is not a macroeconomic concept
It shouldn't be, anyway. Tyler Cowen says: "These cyclically adjusted measures are useful information and should not be discarded, but I don’t wish to use them as the sole or main or dominant source of information about the stance of fiscal policy." I'm going to make a stronger claim. One I have made before.
Medium of Account vs Medium of Exchange
Money has two defining functions: it is the medium of account (all prices are quoted in terms of money); it is the medium of exchange (all other goods are only bought or sold for money). ("Store of value" is not a defining function of money, because my canoe is a store of value too.) Scott […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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