Criticizing Fed: Some links

Few  interesting links criticizing Fed policy.

• Impotence of Fed by Marty Feldstein (very strong title by Feldstein)
• The Fed Shirks Its Duties by Joseph Gagnon of PIIE (he summarises the debate really nicely)
• Fed Harms Itself by Missing Goals by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers

Gagnon advocates following interesting measures:

Reducing the U.S. Current Account Deficit by Recycling Capital Inflows from China

Pengfei Wang, Yi Wen and Zhiwei Xu suggest a way to bridge US Current Account Deficit. The long paper is here and a shorter version is here.

The authors say US should simply recycle the capital inflows from China back to China as FDI. Returns on fixed capital in China are  much higher.

First, why China exports its savings to US? It is because it does not have proper capital markets:

After Columbus: Explaining the Global Trade Boom 1500-1800

A superb paperon history of global trade by Kevin H. O’Rourke and Jeffrey Williamson.

It looks at reasons why trade expanded post Columbus. Was it rise in technology or declining trade barriers or better transportation or demand/supply?