The standard loss function counts both positive and negative deviations from the output and inflation targets as losses. But if the sample period is long enough, then output growth in excess of the target, and often also inflation rates that are below target, should be counted as gains instead...

How can one tell whether academic research influences macroeconomic policy? One possibility is to look at government documents that set forth macro policy. This paper looks for such traces in U.S., European and Japanese documents. Because of ease of access it focuses on U.S. documents. Numerous...

The widespread belief that monetarism has failed is open to question. Certain strong monetarist positions have been damaged by unfolding events, but more moderate propositions live on in current "Keynesian" consensus.

Many of Boettke's criticisms of formalist economics are justified. However, he defines it so broadly that it becomes practically synonymous with mainstream economics. Yet he blames it for the specific sins of formalist economics more narrowly defined. And since he treats Austrian economics as...

Why was the Fed so inflationary in 1965-79? No single explanation suffices. Forecast errors and poor operating procedures played at most a minor role. Unwillingness to accept greater interest-rate variation and cognitive errors played a greater role. Political pressures also played a role, but,...

In dem 1968 erschienenen Film von Alexander Kluge ('Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: ratlos'), der mich zu dem Titel für die heutige Vorlesung inspiriert hat, geht es um die Verwirklichung einer noch nie da gewesenen Zirkusnummer gegen alle Widrigkeiten. Als das Projekt schließlich machbar...