Remembering Paul Volcker

Paul Volcker – The Most Consequential Fed Chairman of the Modern Era

Paul Volcker was the savior our economy needed

Paul A. Volcker, Fed Chairman Who Waged War on Inflation, Is Dead at 92 

Fed chairman who curbed inflation by raising interest rates dies at 92

US Foreign Policy - Costly Errors

U.S. officials misled public about Afghan war, confidential documents reveal

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/afghanistan-war-confidential-documents/

U.S. wasted billions of dollars in colossal effort to rebuild Afghanistan, documents reveal

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/afghanistan-war-nation-building/

Documents Reveal Misleading Public Statements on War in Afghanistan

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/09/world/asia/afghanistan-war-documents.html

What Did the U.S. Get for $2 Trillion in Afghanistan?

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/09/world/middleeast/afghanistan-war-cost.html

An End to Magical Thinking in the Middle East

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/12/end-magical-thinking-middle-east/602953/ 

Geographic Concentration and Growth Centers

90 percent of growth in high-tech jobs happened in just 5 metro areas

https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/12/9/21000162/high-tech-job-growth-concentration-brookings

THE CASE for GROWTH CENTERS

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Full-Report-Growth-Centers_PDF_BrookingsMetro-BassCenter-ITIF.pdf

Four Decades of Inequality Drive American Cities Apart
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/upshot/wealth-poverty-divide-american-cities.html

SNL Spoofs Nato Summit

US Repo Market Crisis

Big Banks and the US Repo Market Crisis

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-08/repo-blowup-was-fueled-by-big-banks-and-hedge-funds-bis-says

The Longer-Term Lessons of the Repo Turmoil
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-23/the-longer-term-lessons-of-the-repo-market-turmoil

Repo Meltdown Shows Budget Deficit Has Limits
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-09-26/repo-meltdown-shows-budget-deficit-has-limits

Why the Fed was forced to intervene in short-term money markets

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/09/19/why-the-fed-was-forced-to-intervene-in-short-term-money-markets

Wall Street Is Buzzing About Repo Rates

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/business/fed-repo-rates.html

Repo-market ructions were a reminder of the financial crisis
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/09/26/repo-market-ructions-were-a-reminder-of-the-financial-crisis

REPO MARKET BASICS:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-19/the-repo-market-s-a-mess-what-s-the-repo-market-quicktake 

Capitalism versus Socialism Debate

Under Trump, Republicans are endorsing a spiraling deficit, along with state planning and crony capitalism.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-has-turned-republicans-into-soviet-central-planners/2019/12/05/c315489e-17a1-11ea-8406-df3c54b3253e_story.html

Finland Is a Capitalist Paradise

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/07/opinion/sunday/finland-socialism-capitalism.html

Two cheers for capitalism, now and forever.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/opinion/socialism-capitalism.html 

Taxation - Debate
The Secret to America’s Low, Low Taxes: Privatize health care and run a big deficit and your country, too, can have low taxes.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-12-06/the-u-s-isn-t-the-world-s-most-taxed-country-not-even-close 

The trade-off between efficiency and equity
https://voxeu.org/article/trade-between-efficiency-and-equity

What Americans Don’t Get About Nordic Countries
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/bernie-sanders-nordic-countries/473385/
“But this vision of homogenous, altruistic Nordic lands is mostly a fantasy. The choices Nordic countries have made have little to do with altruism or kinship. Rather, Nordic people have made their decisions out of self-interest. Nordic nations offer their citizens—all of their citizens, but especially the middle class—high-quality services that save people a lot of money, time, and trouble. This is what Americans fail to understand: My taxes in Finland were used to pay for top-notch services for me.” 

US Labor Market Update

A Strong November Jobs Report

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/november-jobs-report-us-economy-266000-jobs-added-unemployment-rate-2019-12-1028744064

A Few Notes of Caution:

The great American labor paradox: Plentiful jobs, most of them bad

https://qz.com/1752676/the-job-quality-index-is-the-economic-indicator-weve-been-missing/

In the past, jobs numbers have been revised down sharply:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/business/economy/jobs-growth-revision.html