When I was in the UCLA Ph.D. program, one of the readings in my Monetary Theory course with Ben Klein, if I recall correctly, was Milton Friedman’s 1953 classic, “Commodity-Reserve Currency.” It was a chapter in his Essays in Positive Economics but originally appeared in the Journal of Political Economy in 1951.

Sociologist and author Mark Rank talks about his book, Poorly Understood, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Rank looks at a wide variety of aspects of poverty. He argues that many widely-held views on poverty are inaccurate, and in particular he argues that most Americans will be poor at some point in their lives. This is a wide-ranging and lively conversation on the nature of poverty and the challenge of ending or reducing it.

Late last week I got the results of my mid-term exam in Jeff Hummel’s Masters class in Monetary Theory and Policy.

News associated with monetary policy and government spending triggers a greater share of upward than downward jumps in the stock markets of 16 countries, with lower market volatility after jumps triggered by monetary policy news, among other key findings.