The Grumpy Economist

April 2026

Inside the Fed's Balance Sheet

A video and podcast interview with Darrell Duffie, based on his excellent recent article. Click here to watch/listen via Hoover’s Freedom Frequency…

Apr 29 • John H. Cochrane

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March 2026

War and Interest Rates

You knew about oil prices, discussed in a previous post. Now attention is turning to the sharp rise of long-term interest rates. From Ian Smith, Sam…

Mar 30 • John H. Cochrane

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How to turn a price shock into inflation

A friend in Greece sends this article on how to deal with high energy prices.

Mar 19 • John H. Cochrane

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Smith and Jefferson at 250

Last week was the 250th anniversary of the Wealth of Nations. For the Hoover “weekly rants” I looked up what must be the top two Smith quotes:

Mar 17 • John H. Cochrane

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War and Oil

I’ve had a running debate with some colleagues over the economic consequences of the war.

Mar 15 • John H. Cochrane

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EFG Review

Friday, I had the pleasure of attending the NBER Economic Fluctuations and Growth meeting at the San Francisco Fed, organized by Luigi Bocola and Linda…

Mar 2 • John H. Cochrane

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February 2026

Does History Rhyme?

Update on a graph I’ve been following for a few years, most recently last year, this one courtesy of Niall Ferguson.

Feb 26 • John H. Cochrane

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Refine

I recently tried refine, an AI tool for refining academic articles, developed by Yann Calvó López and Ben Golub.

Feb 24 • John H. Cochrane

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A new Fed-Treasury Accord?

A reporter asked me about a new Fed-Treasury Accord, referencing articles in Bloomberg and Forbes about Kevin Warsh’s comments.

Feb 17 • John H. Cochrane

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1951

What happened in the great tussle for Fed independence in 1951, and what lessons does that have for today?

Feb 16 • John H. Cochrane

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Inflation

I just posted a draft of a short book with this title (click on the link for the book draft), resulting from the Karl Brunner Lecture I gave last fall.

Feb 13 • John H. Cochrane

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