It’s safe to say that virtually no one expected the Fed’s surprise announcement on Wednesday that it was cutting its target for the federal funds rate by one-half of a percentage point. Just 15 days earlier, the entire Federal Open…
Author: Ed Lotterman
There will be howls and yowls, but Republicans have to talk taxes
Republicans need to make a fundamental decision about their party’s identity. Do they want to be known as the party that has a coherent, thoughtful view on the most effective role government can play in economic activity? Or do they…
Pondering plenty–or the lack of it, as this season of spending winds down
“Money can’t buy happiness,” I stated once when I was a callow 18-year-old teaching an evening English course in the late 1960s Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Several of my students, mainly secretaries and business people, nodded in agreement. But one…
Fed’s decision-making isn’t solely Greenspan
What happened to the rate cut? Many observers, especially those on Wall Street, expected the Federal Open Market Committee to drop its target for the federal funds rate on Tuesday. After all, the chairman himself, Alan Greenspan, had hinted at…
A primer on taxes, just in time for the next legislative session
It is early winter, the time when, as the poet said, “young legislators’ fancies turn lightly to thoughts of revenue forecasts.” OK, no poet ever said that! But a comparison to lovestruck youth is an apt way to describe the…
Continued irrational exuberance delays the soft landing at hand
Equity market players, particularly the high rollers who concentrate in the Nasdaq, have become their own worst enemy. Their continued irrational exuberance may turn out to be the factor that keeps the U.S. economy from successfully making a mythical “soft…
Troubles that grew with StarLink corn provide lesson in economics
The recent brouhaha regarding StarLink genetically modified corn is like manna from heaven for those of us who teach introductory economics. It is hard to think of a better real-world example of external costs, one of the most important concepts…
Fed is performing well right now, but remember: It’s only human
The Federal Reserve System is a great institution that, on balance, has done much to improve the well-being of U.S. society. I was proud to be a small cog in that machine for several years. But the hair stands up…
Consumers ultimately pay a price for product recalls, safety measures
“Say it isn’t so, Mr. Sears! Are you really recalling my saw?” That was my gut reaction to a small news item in my local newspaper this past week announcing that Emerson Tool of St. Louis was recalling 3.7 million…
Next president needs to take steps to ward off possible banking crisis
As I write this column, it is not certain who our next president will be. But one thing is certain: as president-elect Gore or Bush puts together his economic team, he should pay heed to how that team is qualified…