Classical Economics in a Quantum World
Fed Operating Targets The latest round of will-the-Fed-or-won’t-the-Fed-finally-hike-rates has passed. The world waited breathlessly for the Federal Reserve to announce their latest FOMC decision. Once again, the Fed punted on announcing another measly .25% funds rate hike and averted the…
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Understanding Gold 5 I deem the idea that everyone understands gold’s value but few understand why it has value, the gold paradox. The primary reason is that academia, over the last 80 years, has increasingly dismissed gold as a monetary…
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Understanding Gold 4 On August 15, 1971, Nixon, by executive order, broke the dollar-gold link that had anchored the Bretton Woods international monetary system since 1944. (The link was officially severed in February 1973.) This was the beginning of the…
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“Central banks are treading in uncharted waters. Sidney Homer and Richard Sylla, the authors of A History of Interest Rates found no instance of negative rates in 5,000 years. Now there are $11.7 trillion invested in negative-yield sovereign debt, including $7.9 trillion in Japanese…
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Despite its present day seeming omnipotent power, the Fed still retains only one significant economic lever.¹ This has been true since the Fed’s creation in 1913. The Fed can create base money or remove it. The Fed has complete, total…
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The monetary reference point is where debtors and creditors are in balance. There is no inflation or deflation and neither creditors or debtors benefit at the expense of the other. There is no risk penalty added to terms of trade…
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A funny thing happened on the way to global central banks usurping the market and centrally commanding the price of interest. Economic events began to occur that the history of economic thought never considered. Negative interest rates is one. An…
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Understanding Gold 3 As Warren pithily observed, gold does get dug out of the ground. Not just in Africa. Gold is found on every continent on earth. This is one of gold’s many monetary properties. If one is looking for…
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In The Scandal of Money, George Gilder delivers the monetary bookend to his 1981 influential fiscal policy best seller, Wealth and Poverty. W&P greatly influenced Reagan’s economic blueprint for tax cuts across the board, welfare reform, and entrepreneurial fiscal policy. …
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Understanding Gold 2 Gold gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or some place. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching…
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