Tag Archives: quantitative easing

The Fed and the Consequences of Bad Predictions

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South Africa's government in recent years voted to jail people who make unauthorized and inaccurate forecasts. Good thing for the Federal Reserve that their bad predictions don't carry consequences. [Credit: University of MN]

South Africa’s gov­ern­ment in recent years vot­ed to jail peo­ple for mak­ing unau­tho­rized and inac­cu­rate weath­er fore­casts. Good thing for the Fed­er­al Reserve that their bad pre­dic­tions don’t car­ry con­se­quences. [Cred­it: Uni­ver­si­ty of MN]

The South African gov­ern­ment in recent years con­sid­ered a bill to jail peo­ple who pub­lished inac­cu­rate and unau­tho­rized fore­casts of severe weather.

Hold­ing peo­ple account­able for their pre­dic­tions seems a bit harsh in this sea­son of pre­dic­tions. But the South Africans do have a point: pre­dic­tions have con­se­quences. That’s as true of pre­dic­tions about the econ­o­my as about the weath­er, some­thing that the Fed­er­al Reserve might do well to pon­der. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Blu-Ray, Netflix and Our Troubled Economy

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Sony prevailed over Toshiba in the shoot-out over high-def DVDs. [Credit: originalprop.com]

Sony pre­vailed over Toshi­ba in the shoot-out over high-def DVDs. [Cred­it: originalprop.com]

Why can’t you stream your favorite movie on Net­flix? And what does that have to do with a scle­rot­ic economy?

Econ­o­mist and invest­ment strate­gist Jef­frey Snider offers an intrigu­ing expla­na­tion. Con­tin­ue read­ing →