The Fed

Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 22 July 2015.

The Fed often uses the "natural rate" of unemployment to determine whether or not it should raise interest rates. But as with so many metrics the Fed uses, this one is based on arbitrary measures that can be manipulated to suit Fed policy.

Has the ECB failed as miserably in creating price stability?

Jeb Bush recently opined that to get more economic growth, people need to work more hours. What Bush fails to understand is that more employment is not the key to more economic growth. Saving and investment bring more productivity, which brings a better economy.

As usual, the former Fed chairman, author of many of our current economic ills, is confused.

Ben Bernanke reveals more about his own views when he commented on the $10 bill controversy to replace Alexander Hamilton. Bernanke attacked Secretary Jack Lew's idea to replace Hamilton with a women:

I’d like to think Mises would have spared a few minutes of his precious time “exploding the fallacy”—an often used expression in his writings—of Bernanke’s most recent musings.

Governments worldwide are turning to "financial repression" to manipulate the economy through easy money and aggressive regulation. In the end, we'll find it will amount to little more than slapping a band-aid on a serious problem.

The Fed and the government have gone to great lengths to prop up home prices. But it seems a bit odd to try to increase the cost of a basic necessity like housing. Why not do the same with food and clothing?

James Grant discusses his new book, The Forgotten Depression.