Central bankers and most economists failed to anticipate the sharp increase in inflation that started in 2021, and public policymakers were slow to respond after insisting price pressures were “temporary,” a new paper co-authored by former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke stated. The Fed misjudged the economic impact of pandemic-era fiscal programs, which explains why…

Jerome Powell, chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and Ben Bernanke, former chair of the Board of Governors, speak about monetary policy at 11:00 a.m. ET on May 19 at the Thomas Laubach Research Conference hosted by the Federal Reserve. …

Jerome Powell, chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and Ben Bernanke, former chair of the Board of Governors, speak about monetary policy at 11:00 a.m. ET on May 19 at the Thomas Laubach Research Conference hosted by the Federal Reserve. …

After a decade in the securities business, Bill Fleckenstein began to see the writing on the wall at 2051 Constitution Avenue in the mid-1990s. Around that time, the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building—at the time occupied by chairman Alan Greenspan—had a stark shift in philosophy and governance style. Once a student of the…

Commentary What began in 2008 and continued for the better part of 14 years appears finally to be coming to an end. The era of cheap money and credit is over. It’s hard to wrap one’s brain around the implications. It will affect all of business life and personal finances. It will dramatically change financial…

Commentary Our times are stuffed with daily ironies all pointing to the same grim reality: the failure of experts, particularly those in charge of the many systems that manage our lives. And so we wake to another and very important instance of the same. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2022 Nobel…