Randy Kroszner

Larry White asks:

Division of Labour : Reuters had this to say about [Randy] Kroszner: 'While his monetary policy views are not well known, economists said he would likely be in the mainstream. One University of Chicago colleague has said Kroszner would be a "sound money guy."'

I'm starting to wonder whether anyone besides me has actually read Kroszner's monetary writings (as of today!). I've been the intellectual target of some of Kroszner's monetary writings ("Scottish Banking Before 1845: A Model for Laissez-Faire?" Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, May 1989, 221-31, with Tyler Cowen (reprinted in Lawrence H. White, ed., Free Banking (Aldershot, UK: Elgar 1993)), and the reviewer of others (Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 152, June 1996, 419-22). But really, just look at the title of his book with Tyler Cowen, Explorations in the New Monetary Economics (Cambridge: Basil Blackwell, 1994): does that sound "mainstream" to you?

I have! I have!

Randy Kroszner is, as I said, eminently well-qualified to be on the Board of Governors. But, as I have also said, only one of him! Most Federal Reserve Governors should be "mainstream" in monetary policy. All don't have to be.

Comments

[Tad Brennan]

You believe:
1) most (i.e. more than one) should be mainstream
2) there should be no more than one like Kroszner

I infer that you believe

3) Kroszner is not mainstream.

So why not say so explicitly?

[Arun Khanna]

Randy Kroszner is a sound pick for the board of governors. We need more economists of his intellectual quality on the board not less.
[I know you are saying differing views and not necessarily differing intellectual capacity relative to Kroszner].

[christofay]

You make it sound that Kroszner is not an inflationist like Bernanke which would provide balance.

I'll be watching this blog on Bush's picks for the Fed Board. If W can get Alito through, then who is going to have a voice against anything in the wank sphere of the Fed Board. Bush will be getting his pick of people who will play ball. Bush understands ball. He private sectored in that ball field

[larry birnbaum]

Balance is not this admin's strong suit. You think one person like this, but no more, will add value? You'll have more.

[kharris]

Both the new picks, and Bernanke, have time on Bush White House staff. Looks to be more an issue, once again, of Bush going for comfort first. Has his staff learned to cough up lists on which there is always at least one face Bush knows?

Christofay,

Got any evidence that Bernanke is, as you say, an "inflationist"? If you are relying only on the "helicopter" line, take a look at it in its original context.

[christofay]

Kharris, I think you might have a better set of information and be better able to judge what is happening or will happen at the Fed than me due to your many gentle, informed humorous comments here. I make my statement based on what I read elsewhere where Bernanke in some sort of transmission of the tradition of the kung fu master from Greenspan, a politicized head, to Bernanke.

From Bill Fleckenstein's, http://www.fleckensteincapital.com/dailyrap.aspx, comments today,

"We have zaniness in stocks combined with slowing on the economic front. I believe the former is explained by latter making folks giddy about the Fed stopping. But, from the money-supply standpoint, it's a bit scary to think about what the environment might be like once the Fed stops -- as even when the Fed was supposedly tightening, the money supply was ratcheting up.
Of course, that's mostly because the Fed does not know how to tighten. It only knows how to change the cost of money. If the Fed sets the cost of money too low (albeit higher than before), it is forced to print money to keep the rate it picked suppressed at the level it picked, which is sort of what is occurring."

Unneeded money supply going up, Greenspan's work, inflation. I fear there has been a general lowering in the quality of the people manning our govt. If the economy slows this year, Bernanke will ease interest rates and raise money supply.