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Bubble thought: What beliefs can reveal about housing market risks
Survey-based forecast data on home price growth are a surer indicator of housing market exuberance than traditional valuation ratios, such as price-to-income or price-to-rent.
Are trade deficits good or bad, and can tariffs reduce them?
Typically, trade deficits are viewed through a lens of exports and imports, with the latter exceeding the former. While that is a useful exercise, it’s also helpful to examine deficits through a macroeconomic lens.
Global Institute presentation: Steve Kamin on the dollar’s status
During a presentation and discussion hosted by the Global Institute last month, Steve Kamin discussed how tariffs, volatility and evolving payment technologies are challenging—but not yet dislodging—the dollar’s position as a reserve currency at the center of the global financial system.
Real-time house price model shows U.S. housing market firming
House prices matter to more than just individual homebuyers and sellers. They are closely tied to consumer spending, business investment and the broader path of the economy.
U.S. housing: Unaffordable to buy, but wealth-building to own
A home is not only a place to live. It is a long-lived asset whose value reflects the housing service it provides over time and the return buyers require, given interest rates and risk. The ongoing combination of high house price-to-rent ratios and strained affordability suggests housing remains a macroeconomic vulnerability, though financial conditions appear more resilient than before the housing bust and subsequent Global Financial Crisis of 2008.
Fed’s forecasting edge ebbed prepandemic, persisted in downside inflation surprises
We compare Federal Reserve Board staff forecasts with professional forecasts from Blue Chip Economic Indicators for headline Consumer Price Index inflation. The relevant question then is not whether inflation forecasts matter, but rather what their content reveals.
How USMCA compliance cushioned the 2025 tariff shock
Despite regional sourcing and compliance costs, USMCA-based firms enjoy an edge over competitors outside North America facing higher U.S. tariffs.
Mitigating tariffs via USMCA may have limited 2025 price increases
Higher tariffs do not automatically show up one-for-one in consumer prices. Price effects depend on how firms respond. Foreign exporters may cut pre-tariff prices to preserve access to the U.S. market, while domestic importers or retailers may absorb part of the increase with lower margins.
Private Forecasters’ COVID-19 Global Growth Outlook Takes Shape
Private forecasters have anticipated since April 2 that the economy would contract for two consecutive quarters, marking a global recession unlike any seen in peacetime.
Policymakers’ Response to COVID-19 Can Draw on Great Recession Lessons
Central banks’ experience before and during the 2007–09 Great Recession suggests that they have ample tools to support the economy.