Thoughts from the Frontline: Tag = "banks"

Endless Intervention
  • June 30, 2023

Endless Intervention

National leaders are (or should be) reluctant to enter wars because, once begun, they are often hard to end. You could be bogged down for years, vainly trying plan after plan as the damage accumulates.

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Disturbing Thoughts
  • March 31, 2023

Disturbing Thoughts

Remember when banks were small? Those old enough to have a bank account in the 1970s should. Back then, most people did their banking with a locally owned institution, often the First National Bank of (Your Town).

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Recession Odds Rising
  • March 24, 2023

Recession Odds Rising

Recently I saw someone share a clip from their weather app. It said, “Rain expected at 3 pm,” right above a little graphic showing a 30% chance of rain at 3 pm. What’s wrong with that picture?

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Another Unstable Finger
  • March 17, 2023

Another Unstable Finger

“There’s an old saying: Whenever the Fed hits the brakes, someone goes through the windshield,” said Michael Feroli, chief economist at J.P. Morgan. “You just never know who it’s going to be.” (The New York Times, March 16, 2023)

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John Bull and Two Percent
  • July 8, 2022

John Bull and Two Percent

The economics profession has long had a vigorous academic argument over “natural” interest rates. What would rates be if we could somehow remove all the subjective actors—central banks, commercial lenders, government agencies—that conspire to set them? What would nature do if we left it alone?

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Time Has a Price
  • July 1, 2022

Time Has a Price

One benefit of human progress is the way we gain “common knowledge” that was once anything but common. We observe basic facts—for example, water boils if placed over a flame—and then build on them. Boiling water took us to steam engines and then much more. But that path wasn’t always obvious.

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