Join Professor Bradley Lewis for a workshop discussion of his upcoming paper "Friedman's "experiment," money/inflation puzzles, and minimum risk assets: a new view of U.S. money."
Event Details
Professor Bradley Lewis, AM'78, PHD'82 and Professor of Economics at Union College, argues that monetary innovation and the fact that U.S. government budget deficits are the source of increases in the safest financial assets held by individuals, businesses, and other (non-U.S. federal) governments call for a broader view of money.
In his book Money Mischief (1994), Milton Friedman observed that "the world is now engaged in a great experiment to see if it can fashion a different [nominal] anchor [than gold]" for the price level. The first ten years of U.S. experience may have suggested an answer of "no," but currently many economists and commentators are instead puzzled that inflation has stayed so low while bank holdings of excess reserves have skyrocketed. M1 and M2 have largely lost their relevance, as Friedman had suggested they might, with the Fed for some time now having targeted interest rates instead.
Professor Lewis has constructed and is analyzing a new 100-year U.S. time series he has labeled "Minimum Risk Assets" that seems consistent with Friedman's basic monetary framework but is appropriately broader than other measures.
Copies of the paper will be sent in advance of the workshop.
Registration
Register Online
http://www.uchicagonyc.org/article.html?aid=576
Deadline: 11/18/2014
Program
6:30 PM-7:00 PM: Networking Reception
7:00 PM-8:30 PM: Workshop