The Fed and Inflation: Origins of the 2 Percent Target Rate
The Federal Reserve’s 2 percent inflation target, formally adopted in January 2012, remains the cornerstone of its monetary policy framework. The target directs the FOMC to raise or cut the fed funds rate to keep inflation near 2 percent while supporting maximum employment. Since 2021 the personal consumption expenditures price index has stayed above the goal, prompting a tighter stance with the March 2026 policy range set at 3.5‑3.75 percent. The target continues to spark debate, highlighted by former President Trump’s 2025 call for lower rates.
Macroeconomics of Conflicts and Recovery
The IMF’s April 2026 World Economic Outlook chapter quantifies the macroeconomic fallout of armed conflicts, showing they generate output losses that surpass those from financial crises or severe natural disasters. The analysis, based on post‑World II wars, finds that these losses are...
The Political Economy of Financial Crises
Charles Calomiris and Matthew Jaremski argue that financial crises are rooted in political equilibria rather than pure technical failures. They detail how policymakers craft bank‑chartering rules, safety nets, credit subsidies, and sovereign borrowing structures that favor powerful interest groups while...
Monetary Policy Transmission in Primary and Secondary Markets: Evidence From Indian Government Securities
A new XKDR paper by Barik, Singh and Harsh Vardhan examines how RBI policy‑rate changes affect borrowing costs of Indian government securities. Using monthly data from 2004‑2025 and an ARDL error‑correction model, the authors find that policy‑rate pass‑through is near‑instant and...
It May Be Time for Sweden to Join the Euro
Swedish economist Lars Calmfors argues that the benefits of euro adoption now outweigh the costs. Sweden has remained outside the monetary union since a 2003 referendum rejected the euro, but recent analysis finds limited economic differences between membership and non‑membership....
War and the Lost Generation of Inventors
A new VoxEU study finds that British towns that lost large numbers of young men in World War I suffered lasting drops in inventive activity. The research links higher wartime casualties to fewer patents and slower adoption of frontier technologies...
Shaping of Two-Way Street Between Economic History and Macroeconomic Policy
Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member Alan Taylor delivered a speech highlighting the growing two‑way street between economic history and macroeconomic policy. He argues that since the 2008 crisis, historians have adopted modern macro tools while policymakers increasingly draw...
Networked Information and Industrial Output: Evidence From Chile’s 1972 Truckers’ Strike
The NBER paper investigates Chile’s cybernetic coordination system, Cybersyn, during the October 1972 national truckers’ strike, which slashed aggregate industrial output by roughly 9 percent. By applying monthly data from twenty sectors to a calibrated CES‑Leontief model, the author constructs...
Gulf Wars 1991 and 2026: India’s Economic Challenges and Policy Shifts
The article revisits the 1991 Gulf War’s shock to India’s economy—sharp oil price spikes, a ballooning import bill and a fiscal squeeze that accelerated market liberalisation. It then projects how a hypothetical Gulf conflict in 2026 could repeat and amplify...
100 Years of Hilton Young Commission
The 1926 Hilton Young Commission, chaired by Edward Hilton Young, examined India’s currency and exchange‑rate challenges and famously advocated for a central bank. Its recommendations directly led to the Reserve Bank of India Act of 1934 and the RBI’s establishment in...
Moving the Goalposts: The Changing Objectives of Industrial Policy
A new EBRD study of over 31,000 industrial policies across 150 economies (2009‑2022) shows a clear shift toward multi‑objective programs, often blending goals that can conflict. Environmental targets dominate in Western nations, while supply‑security aims are prevalent in economies aligned...
Fruit of the Boom: The Impact of the Industrial Revolution on Economic Growth
The article examines how the Industrial Revolution transformed the United Kingdom’s economy by dramatically increasing output per worker and reshaping labor markets. It highlights the rise of factories, the surge in the marginal product of labor, and the resulting boost...
The Ideological Profile of France’s Economic Bestsellers
An analysis of France’s 100 best‑selling economics books from FN‑AC’s 2024 list shows a pronounced ideological bias toward state‑led, anti‑liberal perspectives. Anti‑liberal titles outnumber liberal ones by roughly four to one, with most works reflecting Keynesian or statist viewpoints. Liberal...
The Best Five Books on Friedrich Hayek
Philip Mirowski, a historian of economic thought, curates five essential books that illuminate Friedrich Hayek’s role in shaping neoliberalism and modern microeconomics. The selections range from Ola Innset’s political‑philosophical study of early neoliberalism to Naomi Beck’s analysis of capitalism’s evolution, with...
India’s Governing Trilemma and the Paradox of Economic Nationalism
India faces a governing trilemma—democracy, rapid development, and civilizational nationalism—that it cannot satisfy simultaneously. Since 2014, protectionist economic nationalism has limited growth to 5‑6% despite the need for 9‑10% expansion. The paper argues this equilibrium of democracy plus civilizationalism yields...