Last week, I began a two-part primer on the role the central bank, specifically the Federal Reserve, to help people understand what is meant by the Fed’s balance sheet shrinking, the nation’s money supply and how this relates to interest…
Author: Ed Lotterman
Fed balance sheet is arcane but still an important public issue
Central banks are hard to understand, and the opaque terminology used to describe their activities makes things even worse. So when a Federal Reserve policy-making meeting is described in news article with headlines like “Fed Says Balance-Sheet Unwind to Start…
Economic insights on police shootings
Not every issue is an economic one, but there are economic elements to most issues, including police shootings. This is a deep societal question right now in the Twin Cities that involves political, sociological and psychological issues rather than economics…
Mille Lacs fishing is knotty economic issue
Fisheries involve some of the knottiest questions in natural resource allocation. When you add in issues of the rights of aboriginal peoples things get even more complicated. That is a short answer to a query about the economics involved in…
Not time to hoard bagels just yet
Minnesotans are modest, but it’s still nice to be No. 1. So we can now brag that futures contracts in hard red spring wheat traded on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange are the hottest financial instrument traded anywhere. Over the last…
Syngenta case tackles short-term issues
Supposedly there is nothing new under the sun. But at the intersection of economics and law, new technology occasionally poses unique questions. That is the case with a recent lawsuit, brought by Kansas farmers against Syngenta, a Swiss-based agrotechnology company…
Bad month for crime; good one for lessons
Being a crime victim is unpleasant, even if it only involves property and not personal safety. In economic-speak, victimhood involves “disutility,” or “negative satisfaction.” After 30 tranquil years in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood of St. Paul I moved to…
Transit issues are complex indeed
Transportation infrastructure is like the weather. Everyone talks about it and many are dissatisfied with it. But it is unclear what can or should be done to improve it. Thus, a recent report, “Twin Cities Traffic Congestion: It’s No Accident”,…
Property in the right of the beholder
Economists disagree on many issues — is the Fed raising interest rates fast enough? But there is near unanimity on others — trade can benefit both nations and fosters efficient resource use; emissions fees are an efficient way to limit…
Mercantilist sentiments are dangerous nonsense
Some erroneous ideas die hard. That diseases are caused by “miasmas” no longer influences doctors. Farmers no longer believe, as the Greeks did, that the west wind somehow impregnates mares. But mercantilism, the erroneous notion that exports are inherently good…