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Why the 5 percent Treasury bond interest rate matters
The recent rise of the 10-year Treasury yield to 5 percent has set off alarm bells among economists, policymakers, and investors. While the…
Washington Examiner
Gold and bitcoin rise on fears about US debt
CEI’s John Berlau was quoted by the Washington Examiner regarding cryptocurrency in the economy. As gold has gone up, so too have…
Washington Examiner
Bond markets shrug off Treasury intervention, with yields rebounding
CEI’s Senior Economist Ryan Young was cited by The Washington Examiner regarding bond markets. Ryan Young, a senior economist at the Competitive…
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Real Clear Investigations
The Left’s Little Financial Engine That Could (Change the World Radically)
Richard Morrison, senior fellow at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, said Amalgamated can, at a minimum, “serve as an example for other managers and…
Blog
State of the Union and Inflation
Presidents, like quarterbacks, get too much blame when things go badly, and too much when things go well. Look for President Biden to take…
Crowd Fund Insider
House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions Schedules Hearing to Discuss Banking and Need to Update Regulations in Line with Emerging Technology
CEI’s John Berlau is cited on Crowd Fund Insider on banking regulations: The House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy, part of…
Americans for Tax Reform
Q&A on Credit Card Regulation
Americans for Tax Reform has been consistently opposed to government regulation of debit and credit card transactions. Last year, ATR opposed the Credit…
Blog
The Debt Ceiling and the Trillion-Dollar Coin
Another debt ceiling battle is brewing, and pundits are debating what to do about it. Over at National Review’ Capital Matters, I take a…
Blog
Federal Reserve Declines to Become Climate Regulator
Most agencies can either do one thing well or many things poorly. For example, the Federal Reserve would be perfectly capable of keeping inflation…
Blog
Agenda for Congress: Inflation
CEI’s Agenda for Congress is out now. This post summarizes its recommendations for inflation. Since inflation is mostly a monetary phenomenon, it…
News Release
Fed Raises Rates Again to Slow Inflation
The Federal Reserve has been trying to slow inflation by raising interest rates, today issuing its smallest rate increase since June – raising the…
Blog
Gas Prices Are Lower than a Year Ago: What Does that Mean for Inflation?
Even with inflation near 40-year highs, gas prices are lower than a year ago, and not just in real, inflation-adjusted terms. They’re lower…
Blog
Retro Review: George Selgin, Less Than Zero: The Case for a Falling Price Level in a Growing Economy (Institute of Economic Affairs, 1997)
This year, inflation reached levels not seen in 40 years. The Federal Reserve spent most of 2022 trying to undo its runaway money creation…
Blog
October Inflation Slightly Improves: Time for Less Politics and More Policy
Thank goodness the election is over. One of the frustrating parts of midterm season was that many people were more interested in how inflation…
Blog
Federal Reserve Raises Interest Rate; Uncertainty Strengthens Case for a Policy Rule
As expected, the Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate by 0.75 percentage points coming out of this week’s Federal Open Market Committee…
Issues & Insights
Voters who think that putting Republicans in control of the House and Senate will make a big difference for the economy are in for a rude awakening. President Joe Biden has unleashed the regulatory Leviathan. Lawmakers will be hard-pressed to stop the damage.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) just this morning released its hugely valuable report called “10,000 Commandments,” which is a compendium of the regulatory state. In…
Blog
CPI Rises 0.4 Percent in September, 8.2 Percent over Past Year
September’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation numbers came out this morning, and they aren’t pretty. The month-to-month increase was 0.4 percent, after rising…
Blog
Troubling Inflation News: Core PCE Increases 0.6 Percent
The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation indicator, Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE), was updated this morning with August’s numbers. PCE measures inflation more accurately than…
Blog
Fed Raises Federal Funds Rate
As expected, the Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate by 75 basis points as part of its inflation-fighting efforts. Its target range…
Blog
Mixed News on CPI: Headline Rate Improves, Core Rate Accelerates
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for August is out. It increased 8.3 percent over the last year, down from 8.5 percent in July.
Blog
Fed Chairman Powell’s Remarks at Cato Monetary Conference
Every year, our friends at the Cato Institute hold a monetary policy conference. This year’s conference opened with Cato President Peter Goettler interviewing…
Blog
The Fed’s Preferred Inflation Measure Improves, Mixed Picture on Consumer Spending
Two new economic indicators published Friday morning give reason for cautious optimism. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the inflation measure that gets…
Blog
CPI Gives Reason for Cautious Optimism on Inflation
Inflation may finally be coming down. July’s month-to-month Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase dropped to zero last month, down from 1.3 percent in June.
News Release
Statement by CEI Senior Fellow Ryan Young on the Fed’s Interest Rate Hike
The Federal Reserve today announced a 0.75 percentage point increase in the federal funds rate. It is the fourth such increase this year, and…
Blog
Getting Inflation Wrong and Making It Right
Everyone makes mistakes. Owning up to them is an underrated life skill that is almost non-existent among political pundits. Doubling down when threatened is…
News Release
U.S. Economy Adds 372,000 Jobs in June – Good News for Recession Worries
The U.S. economy added 372,000 jobs in June 2022, according to a new tally released today by the government. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate held…
Blog
CPI Slightly Up, Inflation Slightly Down?
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for May increased to an annualized 8.6 percent rate over the last year, reaching another new 40-year high. Even…
News Release
Inflation Still 4x Higher than Target Rate, New Government Numbers Show
The inflation rate isn’t much changed from last month’s high figure, 8.3 percent compared to 8.5 percent, new government data shows. CEI Senior Fellow…
Blog
What Is Core Inflation?
The new inflation numbers are out, and they aren’t pretty. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) went up 0.3 percent during April, and is…
Blog
Biden’s Inflation Speech: Top Domestic Priority
President Biden gave remarks on Tuesday declaring inflation his top domestic priority. Like many people, he seems not to understand that inflation is…
Blog
Fed Hikes Interest Rate: Bigger News on Bond Portfolio Mostly Neglected
The Fed this week announced a half percentage point hike in its federal funds rate. This is the right thing to do, but…
Blog
GDP Shrinks: The Good and the Bad
The advance estimate for 2022’s first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) is in, and the news is not good. Adjusting for inflation, GDP…
Blog
Inflation Rises to 8.5 Percent: Straining for Optimism
High inflation will likely be with us for a while, which means I’ll be writing a lot of posts like this. So, for the…
Blog
Inflation and the Biden Budget
It is good that the Biden administration is beginning to take inflation seriously. Unfortunately, however, there isn’t much that the president and Congress…
The Washington Times
Wholesale Prices Soared Again in January as Inflation Remains Near Record Highs
The Washington Times cites Senior Fellow Ryan Young on the Fed’s response to inflation: Ryan Young, a senior fellow at the…
Letters
CEI and Other Organizations Urge Support for Pro-Growth ALIGN Act
Dear Chair Wyden, Chair Neal, Ranking Member Crapo, Ranking Member Brady, and Members of the Senate Committee on Finance and House Committee on Ways…
News Release
Fed Plans for Central Bank Digital Currency Pose Big Risk to Financial Sector, Economy
The US Federal Reserve today published a discussion paper on central bank digital currencies or CBDCs, signaling policymakers’ ambitions to start one. CEI expert Paul Jossey, author…
News Release
Latest Producer Price Index Indicates Inflation Too High
The government’s latest numbers on average changes in prices, as measured by the Producer Price Index (PPI), are up at an annualized rate of…
Blog
New Inflation Numbers: Still High, Still Fixable
July’s inflation numbers are out. The annualized Consumer Price Index came in at 5.4 percent, compared to a 2 percent target. The month-to-month…
Letters
CEI Joins Letter to Yellen on Federal Overreach of COVID Funds
Dear Secretary Yellen, On March 11, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Act), which authorizes $1.9 trillion…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Urging Congress to Reject the Restoration of Earmarks
Dear Member of Congress, On behalf of the undersigned organizations and our millions of members and supporters from across the country, we urge…
News Release
Biden’s SEC Pick Should Focus on Commission’s Core Mission, Not Political Causes: CEI Experts
President-elect Biden is reportedly set to select Gary Gensler to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. Gensler is a current MIT professor who previously…
News Release
Comptroller Plan to Impose ‘Fairness Doctrine’ for Banks Goes Against Freedom of Association
CEI Senior Fellow John Berlau criticized a proposal by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to impose a “fairness…
American Greatness
U.S. Economy Suffers Biggest Quarterly Decline Ever, Under Coronavirus Lockdowns
American Greatness cites CEI senior fellows John Berlau and Iain Murray: The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate are considering bills for additional coronavirus relief…
The Crypto Report
Ron Paul Fights For Bitcoin After Fed’s Payments System Threatens Crypto
The Crypto Report cites CEI senior fellow John Berlau regarding FedNow: Ever the champion of individual liberty, it is no surprise that Ron Paul…
News Release
Broad Alliance of Financial Services and Public Interest Groups File Petition for Rulemaking Challenging SEC’s Unlawful Regulation by Enforcement
The need for our government to set forth consistent, predictable rules has never been greater, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is no exception. …
News Release
Congress Should Reject Scheme to Use COVID-19 Stimulus to Impose Interest Rate Cap
Special interest groups are pressuring Congress to use the Coronavirus Stimulus Phase III bill as a vehicle for imposing a nationwide interest rate cap on…
Blog
Defiance of Congress Melts Federal Reserve Credibility
In advance of his testimony yesterday before the House Financial Services Committee, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was the subject of a front-page story in The…
Blog
Facebook Libra Highlights Flaws of Fed Foray into Real-Time Payments
More than ten years after the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto published the source code for Bitcoin, and after hundreds of other cryptocurrencies have been introduced, Facebook…
Phys.org
With Virtual Money, Facebook Bets on Disrupting the World, Again
Phys.org cites CEI’s Senior Fellow on Facebook’s new cryptocurrency. “If successful, Libra could have benefits for consumers and small businesses in reducing the transaction…
Marketplace
Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Prompts Regulation Concerns
Marketplace cites CEI’s Research Fellow Patrick Hedger on Facebook’s new cryptocurrency. Patrick Hedger, a research fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the Libra…
Blog
Alice Rivlin, 1931-2019
Some economists do more than teach classes and write books. Alice Rivlin, who passed away this week, was proof. She was the first director of…
Inside ARM
BREAKING: Senate Confirms Kraninger As Next Director Of BCFP
Inside ARM cited CEI’s Senior Fellow John Berlau on Kathy Kraninger confirmation. Today, the Senate voted on and confirmed Kathy Kraninger as the…