US 30yr Swaps have yielded less than Treasuries since 2008 – does it matter?
byWith 30yr Swap yields below T-bond yields arbitrage should be possible Higher capital requirements have increased the cost of holding T-bonds Central clearing has…
Federal Reserve
Auditing the Fed Is Now More Important than Ever
byBy Jonathan Newman Last week, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform approved a bill submitted by Thomas Massie (R-KY) to allow Congress to…
Yellen’s Balance Sheet Baloney
byBy George Selgin Of the many questions reporters asked Janet Yellen on Wednesday, at her press conference following the FOMC’s decision to raise the Fed’s policy…
Jeffrey P. Snider: Further Unanchoring Is Not Strictly About Inflation
byAccording to Alan Greenspan in a speech delivered at Stanford University in September 1997, monetary policy in the United States had been shed of…
Can Yellen Keep the Boom Going?
byBy Brendan Brown Yellen, like notorious previous Fed chiefs including Strong, Martin, and Greenspan, can now claim success in having prolonged and strengthened an asset…
How the Fed operates
byWe are often asked about the mechanisms by which the US Federal Reserve Board (the Fed) influences the level of US interest rates and…
Benn Steil: Of Debt and Detriment
byIt is the exorbitant privilege of the United States that it can conjure the world’s primary reserve currency, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, then French finance…
Joseph Y. Calhoun: Pump It Up
byShe’s been a bad girl. She’s like a chemical. Though you try to stop it, she’s like a narcotic. You wanna torture her. You…
Steve Mnuchin Defends the Myth of Fed Independence
byBy Tho Bishop One of the biggest surprises during Donald Trump’s unconventional presidential campaign was his frequent criticism of the Federal Reserve. Though he was…
Can the Fed tighten without rocking the economy?
byFed policy makers are of the view that the correct interest rate policy could bring the economy onto a path of economic stability and…