In Memoriam: Anatol “Ted” Balbach, 1927-2007
Anatol “Ted” Balbach served as director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis between 1975 and 1992 and died in St. Louis on December 1, 2007.
Anatol “Ted” Balbach served as director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis between 1975 and 1992 and died in St. Louis on December 1, 2007.
This article was originally presented as a speech at the Cato Institute, Washington, D.C., November 30, 2007.
Many predictions of the economic and social costs of a modern-day pandemic are based on the effects of the influenza pandemic of 1918. Despite killing 675,000 people in the United States and 40 million worldwide, the influenza of 1918 has been nearly forgotten. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the influenza pandemic of 1918 in the United States, its economic effects, and its implications for a modern-day pandemic.
The names Milton Friedman and John Taylor are associated with different monetary policy rules; but, as shown in this article, the difference between their perceptions of how the economy works is not great.
The empirical literature on the effects of government spending shocks lacks unanimity about the responses of consumption and wages. Proponents of shocks identified by structural vector autoregressions (VARs) find results consistent with New Keynesian models: consumption and wages increase.