The government debt ceiling and the important role of government borrowing and debt are misunderstood because many politicians and commentators are blind to American history. Incredibly, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Republicans seem willing to drive the U.S., the guardian of freedom through a debt-financed Civil War, two debt-financed World Wars and 70 years…
Author: Paul A. London, Opinion Contributor
The more important inflation numbers
The most important numbers that the Bureau of Labor Statistic (BLS) put out on April 12 are not the ones that get the most attention … the average price changes for All Items (+5.0 percent) and All Items less food and energy (+5.6 percent). More revealing are the numbers for specific items in the CPI…
The Fed is playing with fire: SVB proves it
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and the Fed board he dominates would like to raise interest rates further, but the failure of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVC) gives them pause. They know that higher rates would add to the damage they have done already with seven rapid fire rate increases in 2022. Why is the…
Becoming the arsenal of democracy again
The newly elected Republican House of Representatives and the Federal Reserve still are acting as though inflation is the country’s most important economic challenge. This is hard to understand because despite rising prices in some areas the Consumer Price Index stopped rising in July 2022 and has been stable since. The most important economic and…
The US needs fast growth: The Fed is against it
Fast economic growth solves problems. Slow growth causes them. China is trying to speed up growth again after Xi’s disastrous COVID-related mistakes while the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates and slamming on the brakes to fight inflation. China’s commitment to growth while the Fed goes in the opposite direction should worry Americans profoundly. Fast growth…
Fed policy: Looking in the wrong end of the telescope
The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates five times this year, essentially doubling them. Its rationale is that higher rates will curb inflation by reducing demand, especially in interest-sensitive sectors like housing and car purchases. The newly elected Republican House majority will try to reduce demand further by pressing fiercely to “cut spending.” A recession brought…
The Fed should stop
The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates five times in the last year and is committed to raising them twice more to slow the economy and bring today’s inflation down. It says it will continue down this path even though the International Monetary Fund (IMF), JP Morgan Chase and others are warning that these policies are…
A Monetarist recession vs a targeted approach to inflation
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and his colleagues are continuing to raise interest rates even though they know this is likely to cause a recession. At the annual bankers’ gathering in Jackson Hole this August, Powell promised “pain” as a result of the interest rate increases he is engineering. Everyone knows this will be hard…
Three cheers for government action
July’s job numbers show that the strong recovery from the COVID-19 recession continues. This is a victory for advocates of an effective Hamiltonian federal government that small government policies could never have achieved. The addition of 528,000 jobs in July gets payrolls back to where they were when COVID-19 reduced them by almost 23 million in…
Inflation terror at the Fed
President Franklin Roosevelt said at his first Inauguration in March 1933 that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself … unreasoning, unjustified terror.” FDR was speaking at the depths of the Great Depression but what he said is relevant in 2022 when a recession is not yet a sure thing. Today’s unreasoning…