September, 2009

We Can’t Agree on Everything, George…

by Scott Sumner
The Conversation
September 30th, 2009

Otherwise we’ll have nothing to debate at the Southern Economic meetings in November. But seriously, I’d like to offer a conditional acceptance of your productivity norm. Here are the two conditions:
1. Assume that inflation expectations have been reduced to roughly zero. Ideally this would be done very gradually, to prevent any disruption of labor markets.
2. [...]

Read: We Can’t Agree on Everything, George…

Some Final Thoughts

by James D. Hamilton
The Conversation
September 30th, 2009

Let me take this opportunity to thank the participants for an interesting discussion and offer my perspective on the areas of agreement and disagreement.
I agree with Sumner that achieving a higher level of nominal GDP growth over the last year would have been helpful and that the Fed put insufficient weight on this objective.  In [...]

Read: Some Final Thoughts

Defining the Stance of Monetary Policy Is Harder than It Looks

by Scott Sumner
The Conversation
September 29th, 2009

Jeffrey Hummel has listed four points in a response to our recent discussion, and then one more in a separate post. I agree with much of what he has to say, but there are enough points of disagreement that it’s worth going through these one at a time:

I agree that the financial crisis was a [...]

Read: Defining the Stance of Monetary Policy Is Harder than It Looks

Let’s Make a Deal

by George A. Selgin
The Conversation
September 29th, 2009

Okay, Scott; I won’t insist on two percent NGDP growth; why don’t we just split the remaining difference, making it 2.5, and call it a day. I’m also very happy to accept your suggestion that, for safety’s sake, a move toward free banking ought to be coupled with an arrangement in which the reserve base [...]

Read: Let’s Make a Deal