Incentive Economics

2024 Journal of Private Enterprise 39(2): 1–8. This is the written version of the remarks I gave on receiving the Adam Smith Award at the Association of Private Enterprise Education 2024 annual meeting. Incentives are the key to solving many of the key economic problems of the day. Read the paper (local)>

Trump’s Monetary Policy Desires Aren’t Crazy

Wall Street Journal Oct 22 2025. A blog post with more detail. Trump’s desire to lower interest rates, reform the Fed, and get off a cycle of borrowing abroad to finance consumption are not as crazy as conventional wisdom describes.

Knowledge, Decisions, and Incentives

October 20 2025. An essay on Tom Sowell’s Knowledge and Decisions, prepared for the Hoover Tom Sowell celebration. Read the paper>

Fed Questions

Questions we should be asking of aspiring Fed Chairs. Wall Street Journal op-ed

Fannie and Freddie may foment another crisis

Wall Street Journal OpEd with Amit Seru. April 30 2025. Here we go again. The US government basically funds and guarantees the entire mortgage market.

A new strategy to fight inflation

Wall Street Journal Oped May 9 2025. Advice for the strategy review. Don’t just polish adjectives, prepare to make the hard choices ahead.

Inflation

Link here. The “Dean’s distinguished lecture” at Purdue University October 4 2024. An hour talk at an accessible level about inflation, where it comes from, and (of course) fiscal theory. Slides

Preventing Bailouts is Simple, but it isn’t Easy

Wall Street Journal, May 14 2024. With Amit Seru. We document the huge bailouts of 2020-2023, and how Dodd Frank regulation failed. The answer, of course, is equity-financed banking and narrow deposit taking. An oped summary of “Ending Bailouts, at Last.”

How Inflation Radically Changes Economic Ideas

IMF Finance and Development March 2024, also at Cato. Inflation teaches us that supply, not demand, constrains our economies, and government borrowing is limited.

Incompetent Elites Make Trump Look Appealing

Wall Street Journal Oped 2/3/2024. Why people support Trump. They want their country back.

The Federal Reserve Deserves a Pat on the Back

Wall Street Journal Oped, December 27 2023. Paying interest on reserves and providing abundant reserves is an important advance in monetary policy.

What we’ve learned about inflation.

Or my title, “Victory Laps.” A WSJ oped August 2 2023. How fiscal theory makes sense of inflation, and other common stories do not.

Is 2% really the right inflation target for central banks?

Project Syndicate July 27 2023. No, target the price level.

Bradley Prize intro and speech

I won the Bradley Prize in 2023. Here is the video and text of my speech at the Bradley website. Bradley also does a very nice introduction video of my childhood and early career. Here is a link to the intro and speech together. Bradley allows us to write down our thanks, in order to save time at the ceremony. My letter of thanks here, and yes thank you all.

Bradley Prize Interview

4/4/2023 Bradley Prize Intrerview (video) with Rick Graber, Bradley Foundation president.

Project Syndicate Interview

April 4 2023. Interview at Project Syndicate, mostly on fiscal theory.

Silicon Valley’s lesson: How to change banking to prevent crises and bailouts

The Hill, March 16 2023. If they couldn’t see SVB coming, the regulation project is hopeless.

Fair tax oped

“A consumption tax is the shock our system needs.” An oped on the “fair tax” at WSJ. Again, a simple consumption tax is the right answer. The “fair tax” is introduced in Congress. Sure it will lose, but that’s progress.

The government ditched inflation-protected bonds – companies should start issuing their own

With Jon Hartley. Globe and Mail Jan 31 2023

The most important source of Canada’s inflation: The government borrowed more than $700-billion

Globe and Mail. Nov 14 2022 WIth Jon Hartley. Inflation and fiscal policy, Canada edition.