Peter's Blog

Optimism Alone Can’t Fix the Economy

Many economists and businesses look to survey data to judge the state of the economy. These data can provide interesting insight and will certainly sway markets, but whether they can actually capture real economic phenomena is up for debate.

Challenging Secretary Bessent on the Fed’s Failures

Treasury Secretary Bessent recently expressed displeasure with the Fed, implying that he’s interested in investigating whether or not the Fed is successful in promoting price stability. If Bessent digs deep enough, he’ll realize that the Fed has been both utterly unsuccessful and damaging to the economy.

The Missing Golden Key to Development

While some still cling to the idea that economic and governmental development of Third World countries will come from external forces, it is becoming a much more widely accepted truth that the most robust long-term growth only comes when it is spurred by the countries themselves. Even when resources come from other countries, a great […]

Last Week in Gold: Tariff Pressure Eases and ECB Holds Rates

Gold prices refused to budge much last week, with the LBMA Gold Price PM settling Friday at $3,344 per ounce—just 0.3 percent below the prior close. That leaves the metal up a dazzling 28.6 percent year-to-date, still among 2025’s best-performing assets despite a flurry of trade headlines and political theatrics. Early gains driven by tariff […]

What Trump and Powell’s Tiff Shows About the Core of the Fed

Trump has repeatedly pressured Powell to lower interest rates, thinking that a spiral of Keynesian growth can undo the damage he has wrought with tariffs and one of the most hands on governments economically in recent memory. Let alone the theoretical weakness of Trump’s stands, he is viewing the Fed in an unprecedented yet still […]

Job Openings Miss Expectations, Slip to 7.4 Million

The once-red-hot U.S. labor market is cooling at the edges. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), released July 29, shows total openings falling to 7.4 million in June—a 4.4 percent openings rate. Hiring was flat at 5.2 million, while total separations came in slightly lower at 5.1 million. […]

The Mortgage Rate Myth: Why Cheap Money Won’t Fix Housing Affordability

President Trump’s insistence on lowering interest rates serves only the ever-growing spending state. Lower interest rates may relieve some price pressure in the housing market, but printing money is only going to make things worse in the long run.

13-Week Money Supply Slows into the Summer Months

Money Supply is a very important indicator. It helps show how tight or loose current monetary conditions are regardless of what the Fed is doing with interest rates. Even if the Fed is tight, if Money Supply is increasing, it has an inflationary effect.

Fed Governor Waller Urges July Rate Cut

Christopher J. Waller says the central bank should not wait until autumn to ease policy. Speaking to the Money Marketeers of New York University on July 17th, he argued for a 25-basis-point trim to the federal-funds target range “in two weeks.” With growth fizzling, hiring sputtering, and tariffs muddying the inflation picture, Waller believes quick […]

Why the CBO Can’t Warn About an Inflation-Driven Debt Crisis

Longtime followers of infeneo (and its associated InFi podcast) know that I am no friend of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). My chief complaint is that their ostensibly unorthodox ways of viewing government finance are incredibly misleading, at least in the hands of some of their most popular gurus. In today’s post I’ll give yet another example, this one coming from […]