Beyond the Fed – LPE Project

Full Employment without Inflation: Lessons from the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942

James Brandt — Wed, 04 May 2022 11:00:00 +0000

This is a bonus post to our symposium on inflation. Read the rest of the symposium here. *** Historians and economists frequently invoke the World War II-era Office of Price Administration (OPA) as the sole exception to the general rule against price control. Under its contribution to the national mobilization program, the price level remained largely stable, with the consumption basket tracked by...

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Financial Regulation, Price Stability, and the Future

James Brandt — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 11:00:00 +0000

This post concludes our symposium on inflation. Read the rest of the symposium here. *** As earlier entries in this symposium have emphasized, inflation does not flow exclusively or mechanically from public monetary stimulus. Price-adjustment takes place where prices are “situated” – i.e. in the world of social relations and concrete interactions between particular buyers and sellers – not in an...

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“In a Good Economy Homelessness Goes Up”: Inflation and the Housing Question

James Brandt — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 11:00:00 +0000

This post is part of a symposium on inflation. Read the rest of the symposium here. *** For renters in many cities, the first year of the COVID-19 crisis possessed one significant silver lining: a moderate slowdown in the price of rent. But as labor markets rebounded, rental inflation has soared. According to one analysis focused on new leases, it increased 14% nationally in 2021...

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Let Them Eat Cake: Inflation Beyond Monetary Policy

James Brandt — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 12:00:00 +0000

This post is part of a symposium on inflation. Read the rest of the symposium here. *** The response to the pandemic has witnessed several unprecedented economic and social policies: universal income support, lockdowns, remote work, the cancellation of sovereign and other kinds of debt, and the extension of childcare support, to name but a few. Even the most conservative institutions...

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Ways of Price Making, Inflation, and Energy Price Shocks

James Brandt — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 12:00:00 +0000

This post is part of a symposium on inflation. Read the rest of the symposium here. *** Energy prices have been much in the news over the past several months, occupying a prominent place in mainstream discussions of inflation. Higher prices for oil, natural gas, coal, and electricity are all pushing up inflation across the economy, dampening consumer demand, canceling out wage gains...

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Inflation, Race, & Labor: An Interview with Darrick Hamilton

James Brandt — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 12:00:00 +0000

This post is part of a symposium on inflation. Read the rest of the symposium here. *** On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Raúl Carrillo spoke with Dr. Darrick Hamilton, the Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy at The New School. Considered one of the foremost economists and public intellectuals in the United States, Hamilton’s scholarship, including work on a Federal Job Guarantee...

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Monetary Power and the Core-Periphery Dynamics of Inflation

James Brandt — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 12:00:00 +0000

This post is part of a symposium on inflation. Read the rest of the symposium here. *** When Milton Friedman suggested that inflation was always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon—the result of too much money chasing too few goods—he was wrong thrice over. It is only sometimes a monetary phenomenon. And only in some places. And when it is a monetary phenomenon, it is not because too much money...

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The Fed’s Sole Mandate

James Brandt — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 12:00:00 +0000

This post is part of a symposium on inflation. Read the rest of the symposium here. *** Over the past several months, there has been a vigorous debate about whether and how the government should respond to a recent uptick in inflation. On one side, a group of prominent government officials, academics, and commentators argue that the Federal Reserve should rapidly raise overnight interest rates to...

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Price Stability Beyond the Fed: A Symposium

James Brandt — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 12:00:00 +0000

INFLATION! Welcome to “Price Stability Beyond the Fed”—the LPE Blog’s symposium on the hottest topic in macroeconomics. During the pandemic, we have seen the prices of critical goods and services surge. Fear of inflation has now encouraged the Federal Reserve to raise the “Federal Funds Rate”—the major interest rate at which commercial banks borrow and lend reserves to each other overnight—in an...

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