Macro Musings Podcast: Robert Hall


My latest Macro Musings podcast is with Robert Hall. Bob is a professor of economics at Stanford University. He is the former president of the American Economic Association, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the Econometric Society, and a fellow of the Society of Labor Economists. He has published widely in many areas of economics including labor, public finance, international finance, and macroeconomics. Bob is also chair of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s recession dating committee. 

Bob joined me to discuss how his recession dating committee determines the official turning points in the business cycle. We also cover his recent work on the the post-2009 slump and the causes behind it. Along way, we touch on the importance of the ZLB, secular stagnation, the global decline safe asset yields, and more. We close by discussing his preferred approach for monetary policy. It was a fascinating conversation throughout.

You can listen to the podcast via iTunes, Sound Cloud, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app. You can also listen through the embedded player above. And remember to subscribe since more guest are coming!

Related Links:
Robert Hall's web page

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Storytelling: Friday Chart Edition

Image
I have not posted here in awhile, so I thought it would be good to share a few recent charts that tell interesting stories. Central Bank Balance Sheets First up, are two charts that show the relationship between the size of the central bank balance sheets and inflation rates. The first one shows for the 2010-2019 period the average size of central bank balance sheets as a percent of NGDP plotted against the average core inflation rate. Since larger balance sheets are typically seen as adding more stimulus to the economy, one might expect to see a positive relationship between their size and the inflation rate over this long of an horizon. Instead, we see a negative relationship: One objection to the above chart is it may be misleading since it is the rate of change in central bank liabilities, not the level, that should drive the inflation rate. To that end, the next chart shows the change in the size of the central bank balance sheets over the same period. The same relationship ho...
Read more

The Passive Tightening of ECB Policy

I recently argued that the Fed and the ECB were passively tightening monetary policy and thus responsible, in part, for the increasing economic stress in their regions.  Michael T. Darda makes the same argument today for the Eurozone in his note titled " Anatomy of a Deflationary Debt Collapse ": As the ECB fiddles with its forecast, European inflation-indexed bond spreads have plunged to record lows, while eurozone corporate bond spreads continue to hit new highs for the year. Inflation breakeven spreads in the indexed swap market in Europe have tumbled to the lowest level on record (i.e., below both the 2008 and 2010 lows). With corporate bond spreads at new 2011 highs this morning, the European Central Bank can now be blamed for a passive tightening of monetary policy. Why? Central banks are responsible for responding to velocity shocks by adjusting the supply of money to offset changes in the demand for money. If there is a spike in the demand for money and a central...
Read more

A Note to FOMC Members

According to this Bloomberg article , you are seriously discussing the adoption of an explicit inflation target.  Let me remind you that a price level target is even better since it has "memory".  Let me also remind you that during the September, 2010 FOMC meeting you folks discussed the possibility of a nominal GDP level target. There is much to like about a nominal GDP level target --it improves upon a price level target in how it handles supply shocks--and I hope you seriously consider it too.  
Read more