Scott Sumner

Earlier today, I heard a CNBC commentator discussing today's decline in stock prices. He said something to the effect, “It's all about the Fed.” In fact, it's rare that there is a day when it was so little about the Fed. Yes, higher interest rates played a role in lower stock prices, but these interest rate movements had nothing to do with the Fed.

There is often a conflict between policies that make things feel good in the short run and those that are optimal in the long run. This is one reason why I am fairly pessimistic about global warming—the world's political systems are not well suited to addressing this issue.

When America was like Colombia

Repeating Japan's mistakes

Ryan Bourne recently edited a book that examines various types of price controls, and more broadly looks at the recent increase in hostility toward allowing markets to set prices. Here's Bourne from pages 88-89 of The War on Prices

I still am glad we bought the Danish West Indies in 1917. Nor do I hear many Danes, or island natives, complain about this.

It turns out that “greedflation” is not just an American misconception, the same fallacy exists in many other countries. Kürşad Görgen has a blog discussing Turkish monetary policy issues, from a market monetarist perspective. Last year, he did a post discussing some rather unconventional views:

This post might be misinterpreted in a couple ways, so read the following two points carefully: 1. I’m not defining liberalism in the American sense of left-of-center Democrat. I am using the term in the international sense of supporter of free speech, human rights, a market economy, democracy, civil rights, opposition to nationalism, etc. 2. […]

Creating an artificial world

January 20th, 2025 was an unusual day. It's not often that two different presidents engage in highly controversial acts on the very same day. I am referring to the flurry of pardons at the end of the Biden administration and the beginning of the Trump administration.