James D. Hamilton
James D. Hamilton's Latest Articles | 220
It’s Not Just the Fed
The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries has jumped 50 basis points since the start of May, leading some to speculate that the market is already starting to price in... Read »
Is Social Security Running Out of Money?
On Friday, the trustees for the Social Security and Medicare trust funds released their annual reports. A typical summary in the press is this one from the Los Angeles... Read »
Reinhart and Rogoff Defend Themselves
Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff have posted an open letter to Paul Krugman to try to correct some of the misrepresentations of their scholarship that continue... Read »
Bernanke Says No Change for Now
In testimony before Congress today, Bernanke explained why the Fed’s large-scale asset purchases are continuing. Inflation as measured by the CPI or PCE deflator... Read »
Sovereign Debt Concerns in 2013
Interest rates on government debt for a number of European countries– notably Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and Spain– shot up considerably during... Read »
How Fannie Mae Made Its Profit
Mortgage buyer and insurer Fannie Mae was in the news again this week. First, let me review a little of the history of how we got here. Fannie Mae (otherwise known... Read »
The Soaring Stock Market
Broad market indicators like the S&P500 have been making all-time nominal highs. What’s the significance of that for investors and the economy? S&P500.... Read »
The Contributions of Reinhart and Rogoff
With all the heated discussions of the last two weeks, it is important to keep perspective on which issues are in dispute and which are not. Let me state plainly... Read »
Reinhart-Rogoff Data Problems
The methods and conclusions of an influential paper by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff published in 2010 have recently been challenged by Thomas Herndon, Michael... Read »
Growing Student Debt
I was curious to take a look at the growing student debt load and the government’s exposure to potential repayment issues. A recent analysis of individual... Read »







