Putin’s Chess Game on the Domestic Front: Making Russia Great Again

Today, we are very fortunate to have a guest post from Andrey Sazonov of the University of Iowa:

Recent developments in Russia suggest that the regime is experiencing major economic challenges. Low oil prices in combination with sanctions have led to serious budget deficit (4.3% of GDP in the first half of 2016) and pressured Kremlin to look for other sources of revenue.

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Why Is the Bank of England Paying Premiums?

Perhaps a better question is, why are Bloomberg and others calling them “premiums” and fretting about this?  The Bank of England’s new quantitative easing (QE) program to combat the negative economic consequences of Brexit means there is an extra $1.5 billion of sovereign bond demand a week.

Monetary Policymakers’ Colossal Non Sequitur

I recently re-came across this economic research memo from Taylor, Schularick, and Jordà from the San Francisco Federal Reserve from a year ago.  The “tl;dr” summary is as follows:  The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy should not share any of the blame for the housing boom and bust associated with the Great Recession.