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Alex J. Pollock Subscribe

Alex J. Pollock is the Principal Deputy Director in the Office of Financial Research, U.S. Treasury. Previously a distinguished senior fellow at the R Street Institute in Washington, D.C., he is the author of Finance and Philosophy: Why We're Always Surprised.

November 1, 2019|economists, Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell

Should the Fed Be Run by Economists?

by Alex J. Pollock|

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell looks on as President Trump speaks in the Rose Garden on November 2nd, 2017. Credit: Alex Edelman/CNP /MediaPunch
Perhaps inside every macroeconomist is a philosopher-king trying to get out?

October 10, 2019|Christopher DeMuth, Foreign Bonds: An Autopsy, Sovereign debt crisis, Walter Wriston

Actually, Sovereigns Do Go Broke

by Alex J. Pollock|

A crowd of pensioners outside a branch of the National Bank in Thessaloniki, Greece on July 1, 2015 (Ververidis Vasilis / Shutterstock.com).
The cycle of sovereign borrowing, default, and new borrowing has a long and continuing history.

September 6, 2019|2008 financial crisis, Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner

Lest We Forget

by Alex J. Pollock|

Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, former president of the New York Federal Reserve and former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke. Image: Ben Hethcoat / Marketplace.org
Bernanke, Geithner, and Paulson tell their story: "For all our crisis experience, we failed to anticipate the worst crisis of our lifetimes."

August 14, 2019|banking, finance, Paul Tucker, Unelected Power

Steering Central Banking Past Scylla and Charybdis (the Technocrats and the Politicians)  

by Alex J. Pollock|

Headquarters of the Federal Reserve, Washington, DC (MDogan/Shutterstock.com).
Although they are monetary and economic experts, do central banks have the requisite knowledge to succeed?

May 8, 2019|Dual Mandate, Federal Reserve, Humphrey-Hawkins Act, Jerome Powell

What Does the Fed Know that Nobody Else Knows?

by Alex J. Pollock|

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell looks on as President Trump speaks in the Rose Garden on November 2nd, 2017. Credit: Alex Edelman/CNP /MediaPunch
Central banks usually feel the urge to pretend to know more than they can, in order to inspire “confidence” in themselves.

March 21, 2019|banking, Fannie Mae, finance

The Inescapably Political World of Banking and Finance

by Alex J. Pollock|

Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Frontpage / Shutterstock.com).
Both banks and governments often make big mistakes at forecasting the economic and financial future.

January 16, 2019|Charles Calomiris, finance, Financial Stability Oversight Council, Jean-Claude Juncker, risk, uncertainty

In Finance, the Blind Spots Will Always Be With You

by Alex J. Pollock|

Financial risk will always be with us (Image: gopixel / shutterstock.com).
There are no financial philosopher-kings and there can never be any, in central banks or anywhere else.

November 14, 2018|Brendan Brown, Bretton Woods, Central Banking, deflation, Inflation, Janet Yellen, Paul Volcker, Stanley Fischer, U.S. Federal Reserve

Perpetual Inflation vs. Sound Money

by Alex J. Pollock|

United States Federal Reserve Bank building on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. (Rob Crandall / Shutterstock.com).
Modern central banks keep attempting to manipulate prices to a different and “better” outcome than the market would provide, but what does this achieve?

October 3, 2018|Central Banking, European Union, Federal Reserve, Finance and Philosophy, Frank Knight, Friedrich Hayek, Inflation, Quantitative Easing

Knowledge, Risk, and the Surprised Banker: A Conversation with Alex Pollock

by Alex J. Pollock|

Alex Pollock discusses the philosophy of finance and why the quant guys keep getting it wrong.

June 4, 2018|Economic growth, Issac Newton, Jonathan Steinberg, Joseph Schumpeter, Robert Fogel

The Great Waves of Industrial Innovation

by Alex J. Pollock|

GaudiLab/Shutterstock.com
Innovation offers the greatest engine for growth the world has ever seen, but why do so few people realize how good we have it?
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Book Reviews

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

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The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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Liberty Classics

Rereading Politica in the Post-Liberal Moment

by Glenn A. Moots

Althusius offers a rich constitutionalism that empowers persons to thrive alongside one another in deliberate communities.

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James Fenimore Cooper and the American Experiment

by Melissa Matthes

In The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper defended democracy against both mob rule and majority tyranny.

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Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat discusses with Richard Reinsch his new book The Decadent Society.

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Can the Postmodern Natural Law Remedy Our Failing Humanism?

A discussion with Graham McAleer

Graham McAleer discusses how postmodern natural law can help us think more coherently about human beings and our actions.

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Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell discusses his new book, The Age of Entitlement.

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America, Land of Deformed Institutions

A discussion with Yuval Levin

Yuval Levin pinpoints that American alienation and anger emerges from our weak political, social, and religious institutions.

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Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

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