A Case for the Importance of Headline Inflation from James Bullard

(Originally appeared in Inflation Watch) The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis just published an article written by James Bullard, a non-voting member of the Federal Reserve and President of the St. Louis Fed, called “Measuring Inflation: The Core Is Rotten.” It is based on a speech Bullard delivered two months ago to the Money … Read more

Preparing for Profits in a Resource-Constrained World: Part 1 of 2

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} Two months ago or so, a friend directed my attention to Jeremy Grantham’s GMO Quarterly Newsletter for April, 2011 titled “Time to Wake Up: Days of Abundant Resources and Falling Prices Are Over Forever.” … Read more

The Federal Reserve May Choose to Ignore the Inflation Expectations of Households

First, Bernanke made it clear he thinks gold is not a good indicator of inflation expectations. Now, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has produced research that could convince the Fed to insulate itself from the inflation expectations of average Americans in “Household Inflation Expectations and the Price of Oil: It’s Déjà Vu All … Read more

A Danger of Inflation: The Misallocation of Resources on the Way to Sustained Price Increases

(Adapted from original article in Inflation Watch) In January of this year, Professor Russ Roberts of George Mason University invited fellow economics professor Don Boudreaux to address “Monetary Misunderstandings” on the weekly podcast “EconTalk.” From the synopsis: “Don Boudreaux of George Mason University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts on some of the common misunderstandings … Read more

Reckless Endangerment: Financial Risks Are Even Bigger Now

Gretchen Morgenson and Josh Rosner wrote Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon to describe how the recovery from the financial panic and recession have resolved little and have left the economy at tremendous risk for an even larger crisis. Aaron Task interviews the authors on Yahoo! Finance’s Daily Ticker. … Read more