John Cochrane

Beliefs Korrents

• Korrents What they believe 19 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.

  Each is a korrent — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.

  Recent

  • The tradeoff between government borrowing cost and interest-rate risk should rest with the politically accountable Treasury, not the independent Fed.

    The tradeoff between cost of borrowing and how much interest rate risk taxpayers shoulder should be squarely on the shoulders of the politically-accountable Treasury not the independent Fed.

    Better Debt Said 19 Sept 2026

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

    interest ratesgovernment

  • When the Fed buys long-term Treasuries under QE and issues overnight debt, the result is equivalent to the Treasury having issued overnight debt.

    In QE, the Treasury issued long-term bonds. The Fed bought up the long bonds, issued overnight debt, and passed the interest difference back to the Treasury. In the end, it is just as if the Treasury issued overnight debt in the first place.

    Better Debt Said 19 Sept 2026

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

    interest rates

  • The bulk of government debt should gradually consist of fixed-coupon perpetuities and fixed-value floating-rate perpetuities.

    Simplifying a bit, the Treasury should introduce a fixed-coupon perpetuity and a fixed-value floating-rate perpetuity. These should gradually make up the bulk of government debt.

    Better Debt Said 19 Sept 2026

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

    government

  Show 16 more

  • Businesses raise prices only when their accounts force them to, not when they can see the cost coming.

    Business only raise prices when accounting losses force them to do so.

    A note on tariffs from the real world Said 25 Oct 2025

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

  • Customers leave faster when prices rise than they come back when prices fall, which is why sellers hold prices as long as they can.

    I suspect higher prices make people leave more quickly than lower prices make them come.

    A note on tariffs from the real world Said 25 Oct 2025

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

  • Climate change is real and is not the civilisation-threatening disaster it was sold as, and the expensive policies bought nothing.

    climate change though real is not the civilization-threatening disaster pitched at Davos, Paris, and the media, that hugely expensive climate policies do no good

    Climate turning point Said 18 Sept 2025

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

  • Climate became a moral and political cause rather than a technical one, and that is what will destroy public support for it.

    The “climate crisis” has been taught as gospel for 20 years. Now the average person can see their teachers have been preaching politics in the name of science.

    Climate turning point Said 18 Sept 2025

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

  • Trust in institutions has fallen because the institutions have been repeatedly and spectacularly wrong.

    Well, when the institutions are over and over spectacularly wrong, whether just incompetent, politicized, or mendacious, there is a reason for loss of trust.

    Climate turning point Said 18 Sept 2025

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

  • High electricity prices are what is killing European industrial competitiveness.

    The average European and UK voter, once he or she moves on from immigration, will notice how Europe and the UK have made energy unaffordable, stopped its growth-exactly as degrowthers wish-and deindustrialized, on the altar of climate policies that do nothing to improve the climate.

    Climate turning point Said 18 Sept 2025

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

    energyimmigrationEurope

  • The right answer on trade is unilateral free trade, and the hard part is only explaining why the objections fail.

    Tariffs are easy: The right answer is unilateral free trade.

    Tariffs, saving, and investment Said 14 Apr 2025

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  • The American trade deficit is foreigners choosing to invest in America, not America being cheated.

    this story tells us how an increase in foreign demand to save in the US rather than at home will push up the dollar, and cause the trade deficit, which is in effect how foreigners send us factories which they would rather build here than in their own countries.

    Tariffs, saving, and investment Said 14 Apr 2025

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    America

  • America borrowed cheaply from the world and spent it on consumption rather than investment, exactly as Greece did.

    In sum, spurred on by the federal government (in many ways), the US borrowed a huge amount from foreigners at very low rates, and went on a consumption binge. Sooner or later we have to pay it back, or we go though the wrenching adjustment of a debt crisis.

    Tariffs, saving, and investment Said 14 Apr 2025

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

    Americagovernment

  • Cutting off trade with tariffs would force a huge interest-rate spike and probably a debt crisis, because the budget deficit would have to be financed at home.

    But the spike in interest rates require to do this would be huge. And the trade shock will cause a sharp recession, or worse, putting even more stress on the budget. A debt crisis is likely along the way as the US finds it impossible to roll over debt.

    Tariffs, saving, and investment Said 14 Apr 2025

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

    interest rates

  • The binding constraint on building anything in America is permitting and litigation, not money.

    Endless lawsuits, cost-exploding contracting requirements, decades to get permits, and more bedevil any attempt to invest here.

    Tariffs, saving, and investment Said 14 Apr 2025

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

    America

  • The cure for the trade deficit is to tax consumption instead of saving and investment, and to stop borrowing to fund consumption.

    Cure the disease, not the symptoms. Reform taxes to tax consumption, not saving and investment. Stop funneling borrowed money to consumption.

    Tariffs, saving, and investment Said 14 Apr 2025

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

  • Price gouging should be legal, because a sharply higher price is what sends scarce supply to the people who need it most.

    Price gouging is wonderful for all the reasons that letting supply equals demand is wonderful. When there is a limited supply, then a sharply higher price directs that supply to those who really need it.

    Praise for Price-Gouging Said 20 Aug 2024

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  • Laws against price gouging are what cause hoarding, because it is the expectation of empty shelves that makes people stock up.

    Hoarding goes with price controls, anticipated empty shelves.

    Praise for Price-Gouging Said 20 Aug 2024

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

  • When a shock falls hardest on the poor, hand out cash rather than hold the price down.

    But more deeply, if distributional consequences of a shock are important, then hand out cash. So long as everyone faces the same prices.

    Praise for Price-Gouging Said 20 Aug 2024

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

  • Handing out cheques during Covid and accepting the inflation was less damaging than price controls and rationing would have been.

    We got inflation, but we did not get the devastation that would have been caused by price controls and rationing.

    Praise for Price-Gouging Said 20 Aug 2024

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

    inflation

  Beliefs others hold too

  • The binding constraint on building anything in America is permitting and litigation, not money. 3 hold this

    Endless lawsuits, cost-exploding contracting requirements, decades to get permits, and more bedevil any attempt to invest here.

    Tariffs, saving, and investment Said 14 Apr 2025

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

    America

  • High electricity prices are what is killing European industrial competitiveness. 2 hold this

    The average European and UK voter, once he or she moves on from immigration, will notice how Europe and the UK have made energy unaffordable, stopped its growth-exactly as degrowthers wish-and deindustrialized, on the altar of climate policies that do nothing to improve the climate.

    Climate turning point Said 18 Sept 2025

    Full record — everyone who holds this →

    energyimmigrationEurope

  All 19 beliefs →