Tag: Monetary Policy Transmission

How Inequality Stymies Monetary Policy and What to Do About It

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By Karen Petrou

  • In a dangerous double-whammy, monetary policy not only makes America even less economically equal, but economic inequality also frustrates monetary-policy transmission.
  • Thus, recessions are deeper and longer, reversing the good-times income gains central banks take as proof that their policies are not dis-equalizing even as the wealth divide grows ever wider.
  • Because monetary policy when rightly judged in terms of both income and wealth adversely affects economic equality and inequality stymies monetary policy, we won’t have macroeconomic-effective monetary policy until we have equality-focused monetary policy.
Continue reading “How Inequality Stymies Monetary Policy and What to Do About It” →

Wheelies on the Yield Curve:  Inequality, Disintermediation and the Hazards of New QE

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By Karen Petrou

Starting with our very first EconomicEquality blog post, we demonstrated the direct link between quantitative easing (QE) and the sharp rise in U.S. wealth inequality that differentiates this recovery from all that came before.  QE exacerbates inequality because, combined with post-crisis rules and ultra-low rates, it creates a market dynamic in which banks hold huge excess-reserve balances instead of making equality-essential loans and markets relentlessly chase yield, increasing equity valuations and driving credit to borrowers such as highly-leveraged companies.  In 2019, the Fed bulked up its portfolio in what is now known as QE-lite in hopes of rescuing the repo market, reinvigorating sputtering equity markets no matter the Fed’s ongoing insistence that this round of portfolio increases isn’t QE. Continue reading “Wheelies on the Yield Curve:  Inequality, Disintermediation and the Hazards of New QE” →

Disquiet on the Home Front

~ Karen Petrou ~ 2 Comments

By Karen Shaw Petrou and Basil N. Petrou

On June 20, FRB Chairman Powell said, “Nine years into an expansion that has sometimes proceeded slowly, the U.S. economy is performing very well.”  Although Mr. Powell noted low labor participation, puzzling inflation, and problematic wage growth, he said that all will come right as long as the Fed stays the course.  No mention was made of unprecedented U.S. income and wealth inequality or of a housing market serving mostly the oldest, wealthiest, and most coastal among us.  Too bad – inequality and the impediments to effective monetary-policy transmission it erects are among the most important reasons that the nine years Mr. Powell cites have seen the slowest recovery in decades in concert with new threats to financial stability. Continue reading “Disquiet on the Home Front” →

One Small Step for Better Monetary-Policy Models

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By Karen Shaw Petrou

When I spoke at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on March 1, I pressed hard for less reliance on data that washes away growing U.S. economic-inequality gaps.  Happily, many at the talk readily concurred.  For those who disagree, take note: an amendment added on March 6 to a House Financial Services Committee budget statement for the first time demands that the Fed do better when it makes judgments about U.S. prosperity. Continue reading “One Small Step for Better Monetary-Policy Models” →

Still Economic Waters Hide Lurking Danger

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By Karen Shaw Petrou

On Tuesday, FRB Chairman Powell delivered a strongly-positive statement on the state of the U.S. economy.  Citing factors such as recent wage growth and employment, Mr. Powell is far more worried about keeping the good times going than about how inequitably the good times deliver the goodies across the gaping U.S. income and wealth divide.  This is setting monetary and regulatory policy the same way a diver looking only at a calm, blue surface jumps into a lake and breaks his neck.  Continue reading “Still Economic Waters Hide Lurking Danger” →