Peter's Blog

Beth Hammack, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, warned on October 12th that inflation pressures across the economy are broadening rather than fading, and that policy rates may need to move “toward an even higher latitude” if price pressures persist. Speaking at the National Association of Business Economics’ annual meeting in […]

The economy is bound to eventually reach a point where it can no longer tolerate the interest rates required to keep inflation and debt under control, and some of the loudest warnings are coming from the bond market. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield recently climbed above 5.3%, reaching levels not seen since 2002. Even more […]

The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points on September 16th, lifting the federal funds target to a range of 3.75-4% and ending nine months of holding rates steady. Speaking on October 8th at the Istanbul Economic Forum, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller laid out the reasoning behind the move. His […]

The analysis below covers the Employment picture released on the first Friday of every month. While most of the attention goes to the Headline Report, it can be helpful to look at the details, revisions, and other reports to get a better gauge of what is really going on. Current Trends The jobs report showed […]

Introductory economics courses teach students that money serves three functions, a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value, but they rarely explain why money came to serve those roles in the first place. Following the Austrian School of economics, the medium of exchange function is primary and logically prior, while […]

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson delivered remarks titled “The U.S. Economy and Monetary Policy” on October 1st at the Darden School of Business in Charlottesville, Virginia, offering the latest in a string of recent admissions from Fed officials that inflation has run hot for years without a clear resolution in sight. Jefferson acknowledged that […]

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook delivered a speech titled “An Update on AI and the Economy” on September 28th at the Oakland Tech Week Opening Keynote, cohosted by the Kapor Center in Oakland, California. Cook discusses why she voted with the rest of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to raise interest rates by 25 […]

Anna Paulson, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, delivered opening remarks at the 10th Annual Fintech Conference in Philadelphia on September 24th, noting explicitly that her views are her own, “not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve System or the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).” Paulson said she supported the FOMC’s […]

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Tom Barkin delivered a speech titled “Why Hike?” to the CFA Society Baltimore on September 22nd, discussing the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) recent rate hike of 25 basis points. The move marked the Fed’s first rate increase since mid-2023 and its first policy action of any kind since […]

The analysis below covers the Employment picture released on the first Friday of every month. While most of the attention goes to the Headline Report, it can be helpful to look at the details, revisions, and other reports to get a better gauge of what is really going on. Current Trends The jobs report showed […]