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“The madness did not start today.” — @yudapearl, in the opening remarks of his new book.

Judea, your new book arrived just in time for the holidays. I look forward to your thought-provoking insights—thank you for taking the time to write it.

“Owner’s equivalent rent” is such a convoluted measure even economists are crying foul, don’t trust the inflation report cnbc.com/2025/12/18/tru…

"it’s hard to shake the suspicion the Fed is losing control of its balance sheet policy... the central bank is allowing its creditors to steer the ship. Commercial banks can goad the Fed into buying Treasurys by increasing their demand for reserves." 💯 wsj.com/opinion/the-fe…

Digesting the ECB meeting, "stagflation" comes to mind:
* wage inflation persistently higher than expected
* good inflation down, because of US tariffs reduces demand
* labor market 'robust', but slowing
* growth in large part due to government deficit spending.

Lagarde wage inflation got the ECB's attention.
Lagarde, not for the first time, refers to collective bargaining agreements, emphasizing the "wage tracker" -- ECB is carefully monitoring collective bargaining agreements in eurozone as basis to predict wage inflation.

Lagarde: we don't comment on the euro, but refer to a higher euro in the risk section of the statement.

Lagarde in Q&A: we see investments up, not just from government sector, largely attributable to development of AI.