LeeCoppock.com
Econ News You Can Use
Category: Money and the Federal Reserve
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Data released by the BLS this week shows that the rate of CPI inflation in the U.S. was just 3.2% in October. The graph below shows annual inflation rates since 1990. This is monthly data, but it shows the percentage growth in the CPI over the course of one year. This is how we generally…
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Should we ditch macroeconomics or perhaps reduce it to two weeks? In a recent blog post, Noah Smith argues that most of the material in a Principles of Macroeconomics class isn’t really necessary. After teaching macro principles to more than 1,000 students per year since 2003, it is easy for me to find the blind…
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According to the BLS, the CPI increased by 0.2% in February on a seasonally adjusted basis. This is the first increase after a consecutive decline in the last three months. The index was unchanged over the last twelve months. Hence, the ups and downs in the last twelve months have evened out, so that we…
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The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) estimates, released this morning by the BLS, indicate that the CPI fell 0.7% in January. This marks the third consecutive month that the overall price level has fallen. In addition, this latest decline means that the CPI is now down for the twelve months ending in January. This decrease…
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Last Friday, the Fed released the detailed transcripts of FOMC meetings during 2008, the year they realized the gravity of the financial crisis. It's a big job, but if you are so inclined, you can read the transcripts in their entirety here. The NY Times has done us all a service by splicing key statements…
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Half of the U.S. states have now decriminalized or legalized marijuana for medicinal or recreational uses. However, as Serge Kovaleski reports in The New York Times, legal marijuana businesses in these states cannot open bank accounts to store their funds, or offer credit and debit card transactions. So, for now, all transactions are in cash…
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Ben Bernanke is serving his last week as the Chair of the Federal Reserve and will be replaced by Janet Yellen on February 1st, which makes this a good time to consider his track record. I agree with Kevin Grier (aka Angus), who praises Bernanke for avoiding both financial catastrophe and inflation. Ben considers the…
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Today, the Fed announced that they will continue to buy $85 billion worth of securities per month "until the outlook for the labor market has improved substantially in the context of price stability." This is a change of plans for the Fed. This summer, they announced that they had planned to taper (decrease) these purchases as…
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