This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment that airs on Monday, March 7, 2022. Click here to listen to the segment. In 1921, Frank Knight (1885 – 1972), preeminent economist and a founding member of the (University of Chicago’s) Chicago School of economic thought, published, while an associate professor of economics at Iowa […]

This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment that airs on Monday, February 7, 2022. Click here to listen to the segment. Automation, an outcome of the technological growth to which macroeconomists attribute the sustained rise in living standards in the U.S. and elsewhere for the last few hundred years or so, is not […]

On Monday, January 10th, the Sioux Falls Downtown Rotary Club hosted a discussion of inflation and economics. Jason Herrboldt, Market President for First Bank & Trust in Sioux Falls, hosted the event, a noon-hour, fireside-styled chat between Jason and me at the Holiday Inn City Centre in Sioux Falls. The event was part of the Rotary Club […]

This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment that airs on Monday, January 3, 2022. Click here to listen to the segment. The U.S. national debt is a problem, but luckily it’s a big problem. Intrigued? Welcome to the intersection of macroeconomics and global finance. In the past year, much ink has spilled debating […]

This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment that airs on Monday, December 6, 2021. Click here to listen to the segment, which begins at minute 22:20 into the broadcast. Please note, a technical difficulty interrupted the latter part of the segment. We have a chairman! On Monday, November 22, 2021, U.S. President Joe […]

This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment that airs on Monday, November 1, 2021. Click here to listen to the segment, which begins at minute 21:00 into the broadcast. Most central banks make one or two wishes: maintain low inflation or maintain low inflation and maintain low unemployment. For example, in the case […]

This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment that airs on Tuesday, October 5, 2021. Click here to listen to the segment, which begins at minute 23:00 into the broadcast.) Inflation is having a moment. Seems everyone is talking about it and who is to blame for it. A few months ago, economists and […]

This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro Labor-Day edition, which airs on Tuesday, September 7, 2021. Click here to listen to the segment, which begins at minute 23:00 into the broadcast.) Last Friday, September 3, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that, in August, the number of employed persons grew by […]

This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment that aired on Monday, August 2, 2021. Click here to listen to the segment, which begins at minute 24:25 into the broadcast.) In late July, I traveled to Pierre, South Dakota to participate in the South Dakota Bankers Association’s Agricultural Credit Conference. I was slated to […]

This blog post accompanies the SDPB Monday Macro segment that aired Tuesday, July 6, 2021. Click here to listen to the segment, which begins at minute 21:25 into the broadcast.) Central bank digital currency (CBDC) is not cryptocurrency. Indeed, at the moment, CBDC is not anything, really; it doesn’t exist in a practical sense. Conceptually […]