Publications: Notes at the Margin

Oil Markets: Being Ignored; Blas's and Ashworth's Dumb Blasts (February 21, 2022)

 

Central banks, not oil producers or energy commentators, rule the world’s economy. Two Bloomberg columnists, Javier Blas and Marcus Ashworth, took on the central bankers this week in one joint and one individual column. Ashworth, a former banker, wrote that central banks need to abolish their inflation target and pay attention to commodity markets, especially oil, or “perish.” Together, Blas and Ashworth asserted that central bankers “need intelligence about commodity markets.” Rather than focusing on their econometric markets, they need to bring in individuals who understand what is occurring in energy, metals, and agriculture. The authors added,

 

"If they want to get inflation right in 2022, central bankers should abandon their complex mathematical models and ask oil companies, miners and farmers what’s going on. They are likely to be surprised."

 

Central bankers will ignore this blathering.

 

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