Friday, June 02, 2023
Monday, May 29, 2023
A Lonely Place to Be
This graph from David Leonhardt's column is illuminating. Now I understand why those of us who are fiscally conservative and socially liberal have trouble finding political candidates to fully represent our views. There are too few of us!
Sunday, May 28, 2023
Saturday, May 06, 2023
Wednesday, April 05, 2023
The Importance of Teaching Fractional Reserve Banking
I was recently chatting with someone who teaches introductory macroeconomics (not using my favorite textbook). He does not teach the students about money creation under fractional reserve banking, which he considers an unnecessary technicality, but he does teach them the following two statements about inflation.
- If
the Fed lowers the interest rate on reserves, that policy stimulates economic activity in the short run and, via the Phillips curve, increases inflation.
- In
the long run, the quantity theory of money explains inflation.
I agree with both of these statements, and I consider them critical for students to understand. But consider: How does one explain the transition from the short run to the long run?
The only way I know to answer this question is that a lower interest rate on reserves increases bank lending and expands the money supply by increasing the money multiplier. But if students don’t know about how banks create money under fractional reserve banking, they are not equipped to understand this logic.
The bottom line: The traditional pedagogy about how banks influence the money supply remains important if students are to understand the economics of inflation.
Update: This post generated more than the usual amount of confusion and misdirection on Twitter. So let me explain my logic more slowly:
- It is useful to teach
the quantity theory of money (M and P are parallel) as a long-run
equilibrium condition, regardless of which direction causality runs.
- It is useful for
students to know that cutting the interest rate on reserves is
expansionary for aggregate demand and, over time, inflationary. That is,
it raises P.
- To complete the story,
you need to explain how cutting the interest rate on reserves raises M.
- To be sure, lower
interest rates increase the quantity of money demanded. But you also must
explain the quantity of money supplied.
- The money supply M equals m*B, where m is the money multiplier and B is the monetary base
(currency plus reserves).
- Cutting the interest on
reserves (unlike open-market operations) does not change B. So if it
changes the money supply M, it must work through the money multiplier m.
- One cannot understand the money multiplier m without understanding fractional reserve banking. (Under 100-percent-reserve banking, m is fixed at 1.)
Tuesday, April 04, 2023
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Five Observations on SVB
1. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank seems closely related to the fact that we recently experienced the largest drawdown in bonds in history. That is, the bank made an imprudent bet on interest rates and was very, very unlucky.
2. Contrary to the claims of some talking heads, the relaxation of Dodd-Frank in 2018 appears not to be a big part of the story. The "severely adverse scenario" in the regulators' stress test did not include a major bond drawdown. Instead, it described a recession accompanied by falling interest rates. That is, the regulators would not likely have caught the imprudent bet the bank was making.
3. I am not particularly concerned about the moral hazard associated with insuring all bank deposits (though the expansion of deposit insurance should be done explicitly, rather than through the implicit and ad hoc process now occurring). It is not realistic to expect bank depositors to monitor the health of their banks. A sophisticated depositor with a large balance would instead spread his holdings in $250,000 chunks among many banks. Those left with large holdings in a single bank are, by revealed preference, unsophisticated.
4. People say we need better regulation. Of course, but that is easier said than done. Don't expect supervision to get much better, though we should try.
5. The simplest way to avoid these problems is to push banks toward higher levels of capital. Maybe that can be accomplished by making deposit insurance fees depend more strongly on the bank's capital/asset ratio. Or something along those lines.
Friday, March 10, 2023
The Budgetary Trilemma
A wise economist of the center left recently suggested to me that the Biden administration faces a trilemma: They would like to (1) increase spending on programs they consider important, (2) not raise taxes on those making less than $400,000 a year, and (3) put fiscal policy on a sustainable path. But the stark reality is that they can have only 2 out of the 3.
The President's just released budget chooses to forgo fiscal sustainability. As the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget notes, even under the unlikely scenario that the President gets everything he wants through Congress and his economic projection turns out to be correct, "debt would hit a new record by 2027, rising from 98 percent of GDP at the end of 2023 to 106 percent by 2027 and 110 percent by 2033."
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
A Virtual Economics Teaching Conference
Cengage, the publisher of my Principles text, is sponsoring an online economics teaching conference on March 10. You can find information about the agenda and registration at this link.
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Economic Theory Summer Camp
My colleague Eric Maskin points me to this opportunity for graduate students.
Saturday, January 07, 2023
I talk with Larry Kotlikoff
Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Boston University economist Larry Kotlikoff and some BU students and faculty. You can listen to the conversation here at his podcast. You can also subscribe to Larry's substack here.
Friday, January 06, 2023
ASSA 2023
I am not attending the ASSA meeting in person this year, but I will participate via zoom in a session on Efficient and Effective Course Preparation. It is today from 2:30 to 4:30 CST at the Hilton Riverside, Grand Salon A Sec 3 & 6. The panel is also being streamed live. Click here for more information.
Tuesday, January 03, 2023
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
Biden Fiscal Policy
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Monday, December 12, 2022
Government Debt and Capital Accumulation in an Era of Low Interest Rates
My recent paper for Brookings is now published. You can access the final version by clicking here.
Monday, November 14, 2022
Eric Budish on Cryptocurrencies
Last week, Eric Budish of the University of Chicago gave a great lecture on cryptocurrencies at Harvard. You can watch it by clicking here.