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Overview: After the Bank of England and the UK Treasury announced both monetary and fiscal support, the focus turns to the ECB, but the proximity of the US Congressional recess (next week) without strong fiscal measures being in place sucked the oxygen away from other issues. President Trump...
The plunge in the 10-year U.S. Treasury yields over the last week reflects the growing anticipation that the Fed and other central banks will cut rates and use other policy tools, including quantitative easing, to keep financial conditions from tightening during this period of volatility. At...
Basic recession economics says that when you end up with too much of something that you can't sell, you have to cut the price in order to move it. Discounting is a feature of those times. What about a monetary panic? This might sound weird, but same thing. In other words, if you have too muc...
People keep asking me what the Fed should do. I've been answering that question for 11 years, and my answer is always the same: Stop paying IOER right NOW . It was a mistake from the very beginning in October 2008. It's a contractionary policy, as even the Fed acknowledges . Why would yo...
Originally published March 3, 2020 Widespread fear of the Coronavirus has led to market turmoil and uncertainty, and it is important that the Fed responds accordingly. Scott Sumner is the Ralph G. Hawtrey Chair of Monetary Policy at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and a...
By FS Staff The novel (COVID-19) coronavirus that swept through China is on the cusp of turning into a global pandemic, putting major pressure on global manufacturing - especially through disruption on the global supply chain - and, now, the much larger services sector as consumers cut bac...
Today was the greatest crash in Wall Street history by one measure and took down many other milestones. The Dow plunged 2,012 points in its largest single-session drop on record! Percentage-wise, it was down 7.8%, which still knocked out decades of lows, leading to "Black Monday" being the hot...
Everyone with a pension fund or 401K invested in stocks better hope the Fed becomes the buyer of last resort, and soon. Much has been written about what the Federal Reserve cannot do: it can't stop the COVID-19 pandemic or reverse the economic damage unleashed by the pandemic. But let...
Hand sanitizer is not the only commodity in short supply due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. Since late January, when the first case of the virus was reported in the U.S., investors have not been able to buy enough long bonds. Interest rates on 30-year bonds have fallen by 134 basis poin...
Easy Money Becomes Even Easier Last week, the FOMC surprised the markets with a rare inter-meeting rate cut. As the FOMC statement released on the occasion reveals, the decision to cut the Federal Funds rate by a hefty 50 basis points was unanimous. The much-lamented "zero bound" is coming...